A Chinese soldier has died from bird flu, the Ministry of Health said in a report in Beijing on Tuesday.

The soldier was confirmed to have contracted the highly infectious H5N1 bird flu on May 24 and died on Sunday after an all-out rescue by an expert group failed.

The ministry stated those who had been in close contact with the soldier had not shown any abnormal medical signs and all medical observations on them have been removed.

The 19-year-old soldier surnamed Cheng developed symptoms of fever, cough and pneumonia on May 9 and was sent to an army hospital on May 14 and has been hospitalized since then.

A villager named Li Yinxiu from east China"e;s Fujian Province was discharged from hospital on May 29 after three months of treatment for the H5N1 bird flu virus with her blood pressure, breathing, pulse and temperature back to normal.

China has reported a total of 25 human cases of bird flu since 2003, which have resulted in 16 deaths.

The ministry confirmed last August that the country"e;s first human case of H5N1 bird flu virus occurred in November 2003. A 24-year-old man who died in Beijing in 2003 was initially thought to have died from SARS.

xinhua