Pearl Briefing | It's time for Guangdong to take bird flu seriously

A 58-year-old Guangzhou man has become the second person in the world to be diagnosed with H5N6, a new strain of bird flu.

The man, a colon cancer survivor from Panyu district, fell ill after coming into contact with poultry at a wet market. He is in critical condition, the China News Service reported on Thursday.

The first H5N6 case was a 49-year-old man from Nanbu county, Sichuan province, who died after contact with infected dead poultry.

Across the nation in the first eight months of the year, 294 people were diagnosed with H7N9, of which 124 died, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said. No new figures have been released since. Earlier this month, a man from Meizhou in eastern Guangdong also died from H7N9.

With Guangdong now well into winter, the province is at its peak flu season. The local health authorities have made preventing a bird flu outbreak in the province its top priority.

The city governments of Guangzhou and Shenzhen introduced a scheme in May that banned live poultry. But the scheme has been criticised for its fragmented implementation.