East China's Shandong Province banned raising poultry in urban areas and protected water areas after a 27-year-old woman died of bird flu, said an official on Wednesday.

The provincial health campaign was triggered by the death of the woman surnamed Zhang on Saturday, which was the second death from bird flu in China this year.

Zhang, who lived in Jinan, the provincial capital, fell ill on January 5 and went to hospital when getting worse.

The national disease prevention and control center on Sunday confirmed that she was infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

People who had close contact with Zhang had been under observation of health experts, but no one was found infected.

Zhang was one of the four human bird flu cases nationwide within a month.

The other three included a 16-year-old male student in Hunan Province who died on Tuesday morning, a 19-year-old woman named Huang Yanqing who died in Beijing on Janury 5, and a two-year-old girl surnamed Peng in north Shanxi Province. Peng is still in critical condition.

After the four cases, the country has ordered increased monitoring and management of live poultry markets.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2009)