The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is little chance that a new strain of bird flu that killed three people in China could become a pandemic.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said on Wednesday there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, adding the organization is not considering the possibility of a pandemic of the H7N9 bird flu virus. He stressed that all confirmed cases of the new strain had nothing in common.

Currently, a total of nine people have been infected with H7N9 in the eastern part of China around Shanghai, and three of them have died.