China has reported the death of a woman due to an infection of combined H3N2 and H10N5 strains of bird flu after a cross-species transmission, but said the risk of human-to-human transmission is low.
The 63-year-old woman from Anhui province had underlying health conditions and developed cough, sore throat, fever and other symptoms on November 30 and died on Dec. 16, the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration in a statement.
Screenings of close-contacts were negative and no suspected cases were found, it said.
Whole genome sequence analyses of the virus showed that the H10N5 virus is of avian origin and did not have the ability to effectively infect humans, the agency said.
"The outbreak is an episodic cross-species transmission from bird to humans," it said.
The risk of the virus infecting people is low, and no human-to-human transmission has occurred, it added.
China has huge populations of both farmed and wild birds of many species, creating an ideal environment for avian viruses to mix and mutate.
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting and killing the CEO of UnitedHealth Group's insurance division Brian Thompson in New York last year.
Aid groups in Myanmar on Tuesday described scenes of devastation and desperation after an earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, stressing an urgent need for food, water and shelter and warning the window to find survivors was fast closing.
The Trump administration has fired staff at U.S. health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, as it embarked on its plan to cut 10,000 health jobs, according to sources familiar with the situation and a health official.
The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah operative in an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs early on Tuesday, while three other people were reported killed and seven injured, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Far-right party chief Jordan Bardella called on the French to rally this weekend to protest against a ruling that banned Marine Le Pen from running for public office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds.