Bird Flu Kills 79 in China

An outbreak of H7N9 bird flu in China killed 79 people in January, the country’s national health authority said. More than 250 cases of H7N9 have been reported to the National Health and Family Planning Commission from 16 provinces and regions. State media said Thursday that most of the illnesses occurred in and around China’s eastern and southern coast, from Shanghai to Hong Kong. At least six more deaths have been reported thus far in February. January’s death toll was the highest for any month since at least November 2013, according to the health commission’s website. Local authorities have ordered temporary shutdowns of some poultry markets and ramped up testing, cbc.ca reported. H7N9 is considered to be less virulent than the H5N1 strain that the World Health Organization has linked to hundreds of deaths worldwide over the last decade.