An 80-year old man is the latest person to have contracted H7N9 bird flu in Shenzhen. He is now in hospital in Hong Kong, and everyone that came into contact with him has been quarantined.

This latest victim hails from Bao’an District in Shenzhen. Officials on both sides of the boundary now believe N7N9 has spread among chickens in Shenzhen, as this is the second case following an Indonesian woman who slaughtered and ate a chicken in Shenzhen a couple of weeks ago.

The South China Morning Post has more on the investigation:

Shenzhen’s centre for disease control and prevention yesterday sent a team to collect samples from the Yonghe and Shuihetian markets in Baoan district, close to where the man lives.

Chickens were being sold as usual at the two markets, and neither had been subject to sterilisation. “The authorities did not make us stop selling chicken. We feel worried, but have to make a living,” a chicken seller at the Yonghe wet market said.

A vendor at a Shekou wet market said: “The government should buy and take away all our chickens to test.”

There’s still no word on whether the man had eaten chicken or been to a wet market in the days leading up to his hospitalization.  Despite concern in the city (and Hong Kong), the Wall Street Journal says there’s no reason to panic:

“We believe this is an imported case and there are no signs to show that the H7N9 virus can cause human-to-human transmissions,” said Leung Ting-hung, controller of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, at a news conference Friday evening. He added that there was no evidence to show that the bird flu virus has mutated.

It might be a good idea to avoid chickens at wet markets for the next few weeks until we see how this plays out.