Sons And Daughters BBCMF Bird Flu Pandemic Biotechnology

[Golden Cross]

China confirmed that a man died of bird flu in 2003, two years before the country reported its first human case of the disease. The 24-year-old soldier became ill in November 2003, and the Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site that it has "confirmed the case of H5N1." The death was first disclosed in June in a letter by Chinese researchers to a U.S. medical journal. It has raised questions about whether China failed to detect, or failed to report, an early human infection of bird flu.