Bird flu claimed its first victim in China in almost a year when a woman infected with the H5N1 strain died in Beijing on Monday, the local health bureau said yesterday.

Huang Yanqing, 19, a native of Fujian province, died around 7:20, the Beijing municipal health bureau said in a press release. She fell ill on Dec 24 and was hospitalized three days later.

Experts from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences tested Huang's virus samples. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which reviewed the results, confirmed that the sample tested positive for the H5N1 strain, the bureau said.