( CNN ) -- A 39-year-old man in southern China died Saturday from what appears to be a contagious strain of avian flu , state media reported Saturday . The man -- identified by Xinhua as a bus driver with the surname Chen -- was hospitalized in Shenzhen on December 21 as he battled a fever . He tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus , the provincial health department said in a statement , according to the official news agency . The man had not traveled out of the city of Shenzhen , nor did he have direct contact with poultry in the month before he came down with the fever , according to the department . Shenzhen borders Hong Kong , where more than 17,000 chickens were ordered culled on the same day that Chen was hospitalized . That decision came after a chicken carcass tested positive for avian flu . The territory 's director of Agriculture , Fisheries & Conservation declared the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market an infected place , the government said then in a statement . Farmers were told they could not send chickens to the market for 21 days . The Hong Kong government said it was working to trace the origin of the chicken , which was infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus . But , as of December 21 , authorities did not know the source . Meanwhile , the General Administration of Quality Supervision , Inspection and Quarantine has since suspended supplies of live poultry to Hong Kong , according to Xinhua . As of mid-December , the World Health Organization calculated that 573 people had been infected -- and 336 had died -- after coming down with the H5N1 avian influenza virus since 2003 . Twenty-six of those deaths had been in China , with the largest number of fatalities , 150 , occurring in Indonesia . Vietnam and Egypt had more than 50 deaths each . This summer , the United Nations warned of a possible resurgence of the virus -- which peaked in 2006 , at one point infecting people in 63 countries -- saying there are indications a mutant strain may be spreading in Asia . A variant strain of H5N1 -- which can apparently bypass the defenses of current vaccines -- had appeared as of late August in Vietnam and China , reported the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . The group noted that the strain 's movement around Vietnam threatened Thailand , Malaysia , Cambodia , Japan and the Korean peninsula . By then , eight people in Cambodia alone had died this year after becoming infected this year , the agency added . In addition to the health impact , the avian flu outbreaks have also come at a steep economic cost -- with the United Nations estimating earlier this year that it had contributed to the killing of over 400 million poultry and caused losses estimated at $ 20 billion .
A year - old bus driver was hospitalized last week in southern China . State - run media said he died from what appeared to be a contagious strain of bird flu . The Chinese government has suspended exports of live poultry to Hong Kong .