The 73-year-old woman died on December 6, six days after contracting the disease, according to the World Health Organization, CBS News reports.

The specific source of the woman's infection is unknown, the WHO said, although the patient had visited a live bird market four days before becoming ill.

The woman died in Nanchang, the capital of the southeastern province of Jiangxi. Family members and other people she contacted had no symptoms and no other similar cases were detected in the area.

There is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the new H10N8 virus, say the authorities.

The H7N9 strain of bird flu emerged this year in China and has infected at least 139 people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing 45 of them.

That strain was recently found to resist first-line disease treatments like Tamiflu.

Chinese authorities were investigating the case of H10N8 and had stepped up surveillance measures to detect and control infections, said the WHO.

Also recently, Taiwanese health officials announced a bird flu strain that previously was found only in poultry -- H6N1 -- infected a 20-year-old woman in Taiwan.

She has since fully recovered following treatment with antiviral drugs.