China reports three H7N9 infections, two fatal

Chinese health officials yesterday announced three severe respiratory infections, two of them fatal, from H7N9 influenza, a subtype that has not been known to infect humans before. The announcement of the H7N9 detections was first made in an announcement in Chinese from the country’s Health and Family Planning Commission. It was quickly picked up by analysts at the FluTrackers infectious disease message board, followed by other infectious-disease bloggers and the news media. The two patients who died were from Shanghai: an 87-year-old man who succumbed on Mar 4 and a 27-year-old man who died on Mar 10, according to yesterday’s announcement translated and posted by FluTrackers. The third patient is a 35-year-old woman from neighboring Anhui province who is hospitalized in critical condition. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement today that all three of the patients got sick with respiratory tract infections that progressed to severe pneumonia and breathing difficulties....