China's Ministry of Health yesterday reported the country's seventh human case of H5N1 bird flu and its third death from the virus.

The victim was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou who lived in Sanming City in east China's Fujian Province.

Zhou showed symptoms of pneumonia and was running a fever on December 6 and was hospitalized two days later. She died on December 21, according to a report released by the ministry.

Zhou's samples tested negative for H5N1 virus at the Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention on December 13, but further tests by the state CDC and the Fujian provincial CDC both showed positive results, said the ministry.

Health authorities have taken measures to check the spread of the virus, and people who had been in close contact with the victim are under observation. They have exhibited no abnormal symptoms so far.

No bird flu outbreak was detected in the area where the new human case was found, the health ministry said.

Chinese health authorities informed the World Health Organization, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as several countries about the new human case.

Previously, the ministry reported six human cases of bird flu: two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, two persons who recovered in central China's Hunan Province and in Liaoning Province in the northeast, one in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.