A seventh person died in on Sunday from a new strain of deadly bird flu, the H7N9 virus, that has infected at least 24 people in eastern China.
That means about thirty percent of those with severe infections die, which is relatively high, Yanzhong Huang, director of global health studies at Seton Hall University, told Bloomberg News on Monday.
See China's response to the new bird flu strain >
The strain currently only spreads from bird to human.
The key worry now is that H7N9 could mutate and begin spreading from human to human, though no cases have been reported yet.
There's is a concern, however, that milder cases of bird flu have been going undetected.
Laurie Garrett, senior editor for the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out on Twitter that even patients who are seriously ill test "weakly positive." That means people could have the virus, but not know it until they begin showing violent flu-like symptoms. By then, it can be too late.
Additionally, China expert Victor Shih also said that patients are deterred from getting treated because of the outrageous hospital fees.
The world first became aware of the new bird flu strain, previously unknown in humans, when the Chinese government announced at the end of March that two people had died after being infected with the H7N9 virus.
The first victims included an 87-year-old man in Shanghai, who died on March 4, and a 27-year-old man who died on March 10.
A 35-year-old woman in the eastern province of Anhui also became ill on March 9.
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