Two new victims in the country in January, the latest two days ago. A two-year-old girl seriously ill. Beijing warns everyone to take precautions during the lunar new year, when hundreds of millions of people travel and poultry consumption spikes.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A 27-year-old woman died from bird flu in Shandong (capital of Jinan) last night, January 17. She is the second victim in China in January.

The woman, named Zhang, was sickened by the H5N1 virus on January 5. She is the 22nd victim in the country, following the death in Beijing at the beginning of the month of a 19-year-old girl who had bought ducks at the market in a neighboring province. They are the first victims in about a year, and yesterday it was announced that a two-year-old girl named Peng, who became ill in Hunan, has been hospitalized in serious condition in Taiyuan (Shanxi).

But the new cases are especially worrying because they have struck people in very different locations, where there have been no verified infections of poultry. Yesterday evening, the agriculture ministry repeated that "nothing abnormal" has been found at the poultry farms and markets where Peng had been. The same ministry has warned consumers to be on the alert, and to take basic precautions (like "eating only thoroughly cooked meat, and washing one's hands after handling raw meat") around the lunar new year (which falls on January 26), when hundreds of millions of people are traveling to return home, and "there are frequent movements of poultry products and the risk rises of virus outbreaks and transmission."

Since the virus returned in 2003, 391 people have been infected, with 247 certified deaths, almost all of them in Asia, although it is believed that the real number is much higher. China is considered one of the countries most "at risk," in part because hundreds of millions of birds are raised in the yards outside of private residences.

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