Beijing: A new avian influenza (H7N9) has claimed three lives in China, news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday. So far, 300 cases have been registered since its outbreak in 2013, as against the earlier virus (H5N1) outbreak in 2003, which took five years to reach the 300-case mark.
This triggers concern that the virus could mutate to become easily transmissible among people, potentially causing a pandemic. Both Chinese authorities and the WHO have said there has been no evidence so far of sustained human-to-human transmission.