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China reported finding infection in humans from the H10N3 bird flu strain on Tuesday (1/6). Bird flu infection in humans is the first time in the world. However, the risk of widespread spread of the H10N3 bird flu strain is low.
The man who was infected with bird flu was a resident of Zhenjiang City. He was hospitalized on April 28, 2021 after developing a fever and other symptoms, the Chinese Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement.
He was diagnosed with the H10N3 bird flu virus on May 28, 2021. However, the NHC did not provide details on how the man became infected with the virus. “The risk of large-scale spread is very low,” the NHC said.
The NHC added that the man was in stable condition and his close contacts had reported nothing unusual. This describes H10N3 as a low pathogen and less likely to cause death or severe disease.
The man is in stable condition and ready to be discharged from the hospital. Medical observations of his close contacts found no other cases. The NHC said previously there were no reported cases of H10N3 in humans in the world. H10N3 is a low pathogenic virus, or relatively mild in poultry and the risk of its spread on a large scale is very low. Thus the NHC added.
The strain is not a very common virus according to Filip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Transboundary Animal Disease Emergency Center at the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
Only about 160 virus isolates were reported in the 40 years to 2018, mostly in wild birds or waterfowl in Asia and some restricted parts of North America. And so far nothing has been detected in chickens.
“Analysis of the genetic data of the virus will be needed to determine whether it resembles an older virus or whether it is a new mix of different viruses,” Claes said.
Several strains of bird flu have been found among animals in China, but mass outbreaks in humans are rare. The last bird flu epidemic in humans in China occurred in late 2016 to 2017 with the H7N9 virus.
H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and claimed 616 lives since 2013 according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Following recent avian flu outbreaks in Africa and Eurasia, the head of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week urged tougher controls on poultry farms, markets, and wild birds. (jpg)
