The provincial health and family planning commission has announced that a trader of live poultry becomes the latest human infection of the H7N0 avian flu virus.

The patient was formally diagnosed Sunday. He has severe pneumonia and sepsis and suffering from multiple organ failure, authorities said.

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The patient is receiving medical treatment in isolation, according to the commission.

The identity of the patient has not been disclosed and the commission did not provide any additional detail other than saying that the patient is a live poultry trader.

H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in March 2013 in China. It is most likely to strike in winter and spring.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, 44 human cases of H7N9 were reported from September 2015 to February 1 of this year, with 10 fatalities.

The number of patients, however, was lower by 70 cases from the same period a year ago, according to China's National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Last February 4, a 48-year-old man in China's Hunan Province died at a hospital after contracting the H7N9 avian flu.

The man, surnamed Xie, was diagnosed with the avian flu a day before his death. The immediate cause of his death was kidney and liver failures, official documents released by the provincial health and family planning commission said.

Scientists have not found any mutation of H7N9 and H5N6 virus that poses threats to public health so far, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

According to Ni Daxin, deputy head of the Office of Disease Control and Emergency Response under the China CDC, there is still no evidence that would point to possible human-to-human transmission in the spread of the viruses. 

TagsChina H7N9, avian flu, H7N9