(Adds background, quote) GENEVA, June 4 (Reuters) - A Chinese soldier has died from bird flu, taking the death toll from the virus in the world's most populous country to 16, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday. The United Nations health agency quoted China's Ministry of Health as saying the 19-year-old male soldier, who was serving in the southeastern province of Fujian, died on June 3. The soldier, surnamed Cheng, was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus on May 18 and had been receiving treatment at a military hospital. China has had 25 laboratory-confirmed cases of bird flu, but this is the first death to be reported since March. Worldwide the virus has killed 188 people out of 309 known cases since it re-emerged in Hong Kong in 2003. Although it currently mainly affects poultry, scientists fear the H5N1 virus could mutate to become more easily passed between people and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die. Most human cases worldwide have followed close contact with infected poultry and in China there are millions of backyard birds. But WHO officials say that only one of the human cases in China has subsequently been linked directly to infected poultry, raising questions about how effectively the disease is being monitored amongst birds. "This would suggest that the monitoring of H5N1 in poultry in China needs to be strengthened," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.
