A WOMAN infected with the H5N6 bird flu virus has given birth to a healthy child in Zhaoqing City in Guangdong Province.

    The 40-year-old woman, surnamed He, has been in critical condition since she was hospitalized Dec. 28 after six days of coughing and fever.

    He, who was 35 weeks pregnant, had a caesarean section the day after hospitalization. Checks confirmed that the baby hasn’t been infected with the virus, officials from Zhaoqing No. 1 People’s Hospital said Sunday.

    The patient’s condition is complicated, as she needs to recover from surgery while fighting a lung infection and other organ problems, doctors said.

    Guangdong has reported four cases of H5N6, which have all been linked to exposure to live poultry. Except for the first case reported in December 2014, all cases have been reported within the last two weeks.

    The latest case was reported last Thursday, when a 25-year-old man surnamed Cai from Longgang District in Shenzhen was announced to be in serious condition and being treated in a Shenzhen hospital for H5N6 infection.

    A 26-year-old Shenzhen woman, who died Dec. 28, was reported as being infected with H5N6 on Dec. 29 and the 40-year-old pregnant woman was reported Jan. 1 as being infected.

    The world’s first human H5N6 infection was reported in May 2014 in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

    Guangdong’s center for disease control and prevention said all the reported cases were sporadic and the virus could only spread locally, and preventing contacts with live poultry is key.

    Jiangxi Province’s health authority reported an H5N6 case detected through routine monitoring over the weekend.

    The 42-year-old man had been living in Guangdong for a long time and sold vegetables near live poultry. Family members took him to his hometown after he fell sick. He died Dec. 21 at a hospital in Ganzhou in Jiangxi. None of those who came in close contact developed flu-like symptoms.(SD-Xinhua)