MEDIA RELEASE: Scientists in China have confirmed for the first time that the influenza A H7N9 virus has transmitted from birds—specifically, chicken at a wet poultry market—to humans, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet. Since its emergence in February 2013, 108 people are thought to have been infected with the H7N9 virus, which has now appeared in several different regions of China, and is thought to have killed 22 people*. While early reports centred on cases in the Shanghai region, the new Lancet report details four confirmed cases of human H7N9 infection in Zhejiang, an Eastern coastal province south of Shanghai. After it was initially found that a 39 year old patient admitted to hospital in the region was infected with the H7N9 virus, a team of researchers led by Professor Lanjuan Li, of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and Professor Professor Kwok-Yung Yuen of the University