A total of 192 human H7N9 avian flu cases, including 79 fatalities, were reported in the Chinese mainland in January, the state health authority said Tuesday.
According to the commission, there was an increase in reports of H7N9 infections and deaths from the disease in January, up from 106 and 20 respectively in December 2016.
H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in China in March 2013. Infections usually occur in winter and spring.
South China's Guangdong Province said Tuesday that 21 people were infected with and 10 died from H7N9 in the province in January. Beijing also reported a human H7N9 case last week, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
A number of provinces have rolled out measures to prevent the virus from spreading, with live poultry sales suspended in cities in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Central China's Hunan Province, and East China's Zhejiang Provinces, Xinhua reported.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission released monthly reports on infection cases. In January, 482,019 people in the Chinese mainland were infected with national notifiable diseases, including tuberculosis and cholera, and there were 1,121 deaths from infectious diseases.
