A 41-year-old man from China’s Zhenjiang city has reportedly contracted H10N3 strain of bird flu, what is believed to be the first case of human infection from the new strain avian influenza virus.
According to China’s National Health Commission, the patient was hospitalised on May 28 after developing a fever and other symptoms. He is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the NHC said in a statement. The agency, however, did not elaborate on how the man had got infected with the virus. Medical observation of his close contacts had not found any other cases.In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China’s Shenyang city.
Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low. H10N3 is a low pathogenic, or relatively less severe, strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale was very low, the NHC said as reported by news agency Reuters.
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There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry. H5N8 is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus). While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China’s Shenyang city. There have been no significant numbers of human infections with bird flu since the H7N9 strain killed around 300 people during 2016-2017.
