BEIJING (AP) — A 21-year-old woman who contracted the H5N1 strain of bird flu has died in southwest China.

The health department of the city of Guiyang says the woman died Wednesday of multiple organ failure.

The woman was one of two people who were reported last week to have contracted bird flu. Authorities said they found no evidence the patients had contact with poultry before falling ill.

Most bird flu cases in humans come from close contact with infected poultry. Epidemiologists fear the virus might eventually mutate into a form that is highly contagious among people.

 Meanwhile, 3-year-old Cambodian girl has become the sixth person to die from bird flu in the country this year.Cambodia’s Health Ministry and the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the child was in contact with poultry in her village in southern Kampot province, where there were recent deaths among poultry.

Cambodia has registered seven human cases this year of the virus, also called avian influenza, or H5N1. Only one has survived.

The H5N1 virus normally spreads between sick poultry, but it can sometimes spread from poultry to humans.

The WHO says bird flu has killed 365 other people worldwide since surfacing in 2003.