China records world’s first human death from H3N8 bird flu, WHO says

A Chinese language girl has change into the primary individual to die from a kind of hen flu that’s uncommon in people, the World Well being Organisation (WHO) stated, however the pressure doesn’t seem to unfold between folks.

The 56-year-old girl from the southern province of Guangdong was the third individual recognized to have been contaminated with the H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, the WHO stated in a press release late on Tuesday.

The entire circumstances have been in China, with the primary two circumstances reported final 12 months.

The Guangdong Provincial Centre for Illness Management and Prevention reported the third an infection late final month however didn’t present particulars of the girl’s dying.

The affected person had a number of underlying circumstances, stated the WHO, and a historical past of publicity to dwell poultry.

Sporadic infections in folks with hen flu are frequent in China the place avian flu viruses continually flow into in large poultry and wild hen populations.

Samples collected from a moist market visited by the girl earlier than she grew to become ailing had been constructive for influenza A(H3), stated the WHO, suggesting this may occasionally have been the supply of an infection.

Although uncommon in folks, H3N8 is frequent in birds through which it causes little to no signal of illness. It has additionally contaminated different mammals.

There have been no different circumstances discovered amongst shut contacts of the contaminated girl, the WHO stated.

“Primarily based on obtainable data, it seems that this virus doesn’t have the power to unfold simply from individual to individual, and due to this fact the chance of it spreading amongst people on the nationwide, regional, and worldwide ranges is taken into account to be low,” the WHO stated within the assertion.

Monitoring of all avian influenza viruses is taken into account essential given their skill to evolve and trigger a pandemic.