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Woman dies of mysterious lung disease in Shanghai+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)HONG KONG, March 23_(Kyodo) _ A 29-year-old woman has died of a mysterious lung disease in Shanghai, the World Health Organization office in Beijing said Thursday. WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said they have learned about the case from the city's health bureau and that the woman, a migrant worker, died of "pneumonia of unknown cause." "Health authorities do not have to notify (the WHO) unless it is likely to be a SARS case, or emerging infectious diseases," she said. "We have asked the Ministry of Health for further information but we have not got a response yet." Bhatiasevi said 150 people died of pneumonia of unknown cause in China last year and whether or not the woman died of SARS "depends on her diagnosis and exposure." "Doctors were unable to save the woman, whose condition deteriorated rapidly," the Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News reported Thursday on its website, but it did not say when and in what condition the woman was hospitalized. A municipal official was quoted by Hong Kong's ATV News as saying they will make a notification if it was a SARS case. A Shanghai TV station, meanwhile, reported Thursday that a 29-year-old woman died of suspected bird flu in the city. Reuters quoted an official at the Shanghai municipality information office as saying the woman, a migrant worker, died Tuesday of pneumonia of unconfirmed origin. In China, 15 human bird flu cases have been confirmed since late last year and 10 of the people infected have died. |