Travelers to Guangdong cautioned over H5N6

Taipei, Dec. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) cautioned travelers to Guangdong Province in southeastern China to pay attention to personal hygiene after the coastal region recorded the world's second confirmed human infection of the H5N6 avian flu.

A 58-year-old patient in Guangdong is in critical condition after contracting the disease, the CDC said, citing information from China's health authorities to say that none of the five people who have come into contact with him has developed symptoms.

The man developed a fever and chills on Dec. 4 and sought medical attention five days later, the CDC said.

Anyone traveling to Guangdong should take precautions and avoid contact with fowl, either living or dead, CDC officials urged.

The first confirmed patient infected with H5N6 -- in China's western province of Sichuan -- has died, according to the CDC.

Authorities reassured the public that the two known human infections are isolated cases and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

H5N6 is a low-pathogenic bird flu virus found between 1984 and 2013 in Germany, Sweden and the United States.

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture detected the virus in 2004 in bird feces at a Taipei nature preserve that is home to migratory birds, but H5N6 has never been found in locally raised poultry, according to the CDC.

(By Lee Hsin-Yin)ENDITEM/WH