(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-07 23:12

Nanjing -- China has confirmed that the father of a Chinese man who died of bird flu has also been infected with the H5N1 virus that causes the disease, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

The 52-year-old man, surnamed Lu, was the father of the 24-year-old victim who died on Sunday, and a native of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu. He developed symptoms of fever and was hospitalized for lower lobe pneumonia on Monday.

Respiratory tract sample examinations by the provincial and national Disease Control and Prevention Center on Wednesday and Thursday confirmed he was H5N1 positive. The term refers to the virus's genetic make-up.

The Ministry of Health had also reported the case to the World Health Organization, authorities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and some foreign governments.