The woman, a farmer from Hunan Province was hospitalised on January 26, three days after falling ill, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, adding that her condition had since improved.

The report said China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed it was the H5N1 form of the disease, which can be fatal to humans, and had reported the case to the World Health Organisation.

Five people are reported to have died from bird flu this year in China, a country considered to be one of the nations most at risk from bird flu epidemics because of the large poultry population that lives in close proximity to humans.

At least two other people in China fell ill with avian influenza in January, including a two-year-old girl who contracted the disease in Hunan.

Health authorities in Hunan ended a week-long quarantine of 157 people who had close contact with the toddler and a teenage boy who died in the province, saying none had developed any flu-like symptoms, Xinhua said Tuesday.

So far, 25 people have died from avian influenza in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organisation figures.

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