A mission from the World Health Organization (WHO) is scheduled to arrive in China within the week for a week-long assessment of the new strain of bird flu, H7N9, in the country, WHO said Tuesday.

WHO spokesperson Glenn Thomas said given that the sources of the virus were still unknown, further human infections were expected, reaffirming "at the moment there are no signs of on-going human to human transmission."

There have been 77 human infection cases across the country as of late Tuesday, after officials in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu detected one, five and three cases respectively on Tuesday.

There were no deaths reported, with the country's total H7N9 death toll remaining at 14.

WHO announced China had invited a team of experts, consisting of Chinese experts on epidemiology, laboratory tests and clinical treatment as well as experts and officials from the United States, the European Union, Australia and would  carry out a one-week joint assessment of the situation of this deadly disease in the country.

The team will go to the infected areas to assess the outbreak and transmission mode of the influenza, investigate technical characteristics of the virus itself such as source, reservoir and pathogenicity, and guide further prevention and control measures.

WHO officials will support China response to the emergency, Thomas said.

Silvano Sofia, spokesman of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), told reporters that the FAO was working closely with Chinese authorities to develop a market chain analysis to trace the sources of infected poultry back to the farms of origin to identify other infected farms.

She added that in light of recent events, the FAO was reevaluating surveillance protocols in domestic and wild animals.

Sofia also commended the Chinese authorities' decisions to release virus information to the public and their agreement to share the virus information with the international community.

"The virus sequence released has allowed scientific communities to perform further analysis and to be better prepared for diagnosis and production of human vaccines," she said.

In other developments, a seven-year-old girl who tested positive for the H7N9 avian influenza virus in first human infection case in Beijing, will be discharged from Beijing Ditan Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, local health authorities said Tuesday.

After six days of treatment, the temperature of the girl surnamed Yao has stabilized, and her breathing and blood tests have also improved, said Cheng Jun, spokesman for the hospital.

Yao, has tested negative for the H7N9 virus over the past three days, Cheng said. A four-year-old carrier of the H7N9 virus is also expected to be released soon said Chen Zhihai, director of the hospital's infectious disease department.

Xinhua - Global Times