North China's Shanxi Province on Sunday ended the emergency response to human bird flu, a week after a two-year-old girl was confirmed to be infected with the virus.

All the 67 people who had close contact with the girl surnamed Peng have been discharged from medical observation as of Saturday night. No one was found to be infected, said a senior official of the provincial health department.

Peng was out of danger on Friday after her vital signs remained stable for six consecutive days.

Peng fell ill on January 7 in central Hunan Province. She was taken to Shanxi by her grandparents on January 11 and was confirmed to be infected with avian influenza on January 17.

Accordingly, Shanxi launched the emergency response. There has been no report of human or animal infections of bird flu since then.

China has reported four human deaths from bird flu so far this year. The first death was a 19-year-old woman in Beijing on January 5, followed by a 27-year-old woman in Shandong on January 17, a 16-year-old boy in Hunan on January 20, and a 31-year-old woman in Xinjiang on January 23.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2009)