The World Health Organization (WHO) is sending a mission to an eastern Chinese province that has reported two human deaths from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
China confirmed yesterday a second person had died of H5N1 in Anhui province, bringing to three the total number of confirmed cases in the world's largest poultry -roducing nation.
The third person, a nine-year-old boy living in southern Hunan province, recovered. His dead sister is a suspected case.
"It is entirely possible that more human cases will crop up now and then across China as outbreaks in poultry continue and as bird flu continues to be endemic in the environment," said Roy Wadia, WHO spokesman in Beijing.
"We are to go on an Anhui mission in connection with the first confirmed case but now that this has also happened, it's likely this will be part of the Anhui mission as well," Mr Wadia added, referring to the second reported death.
The trip had been approved and would leave "sooner rather than later", he said. The WHO earlier this month sent a mission to Hunan province.
China has already culled more than 20 million birds this year to contain the spread of avian influenza and has reported 21 outbreaks since mid-October in nine regions and provinces.
H5N1 has killed nearly 70 people in Asia since late 2003 - mainly in Vietnam and Thailand. But the real fear is that it will mutate and acquire the ability to pass from human to human, causing a global pandemic.