Officials with the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have confirmed the second imported human case of H7N9 avian influenza this year in a Chinese tourist, according to a Focus Taiwan News Channel report today.

According to the report, the patient, a 86-year-old man from Jiangsu Province was in Taiwan with a tour group when he began to exhibit symptoms.

He entered Taiwan Dec. 17 and began showing symptoms two days later, starting with a loss of appetite. On Dec. 23, he reported tightness of the chest before being rushed to an emergency room the next day, where he was put on a ventilator to treat pneumonia. He is currently in a Taiwan hospital being treated.

In April, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in Taiwan confirmed the first imported case of H7N9 avian influenza in a 53-year-old male Taiwanese citizen who worked in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China prior to illness onset.

According to the US CDC, “H7N9” is the designation for one subtype of influenza viruses that is sometimes found in birds, but that does not normally infect humans. Like all influenza A viruses, there also are different strains of H7N9. Beginning at the end of March 2013, China reported human and bird (poultry) infections with a new strain of H7N9 that is very different from previously seen H7N9 viruses.

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