The 124 people who had close contact with a young man who died of bird flu in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, earlier this month are no longer in isolation

The Guangzhou City Health Bureau announced on Wednesday that the 124 were removed from medical observation on Sunday.

The 32-year-old man who died, surnamed Lao, was the first human case of bird flu in Guangzhou. He started to show symptoms of fever and pneumonia on February 22. He died on March 2 despite receiving medical attention. Local medical experts ruled out that his girlfriend, who had been suffering from a fever, had caught the infection and she was discharged from hospital on Saturday.

Guangzhou also ended the daily report on the emergency measures as no new bird flu outbreaks in poultry or any new suspected human cases had been detected according to the local health bureau.

As of March 7, the Chinese mainland had reported 15 confirmed human cases of bird flu. Of those infected 10 died. Globally 175 human cases have been diagnosed resulting in 95 deaths. These figures were reported on the World Health Organization's website of March 6.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)