China Bird Flu in 2003 story from AP

Chinese Health Ministry investigating whether man died of bird flu in 2003

BEIJING Health experts are checking to see if a man thought to have died of SARS, might really have had bird flu instead.

The World Health Organization says it happened in 2003, two years before any human cases of the disease were reported by mainland China.Officials are testing samples from the man. The case came to light in a letter Chinese scientists published in the June 22nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.The case raises questions about China's ability to track emerging diseases and cooperate with the W-H-O.China's failure to release timely information about the SARS emergence in late 2002-early 2003 was criticized by health experts for contributing to the disease's spread.SARS, which has very similar symptoms to bird flu, eventually killed 774 people worldwide.