China’s Jiangsu province reports first human case of H10N3 bird flu
A 41-year-old man in eastern China has become the first known human in the world infected with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, the country’s National Health Commission says.
The man, who resided in Zhenjiang city in Jiangsu province, developed symptoms such as fever on April 23 and was admitted to a local hospital on April 28, the commission said on Tuesday. He was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28 after genetic analysis was completed.
In a statement, the commission said the H10N3 virus was low pathogenic among birds, meaning it was less deadly. No previous human cases of the virus strain had been reported in the world.
“This case is an occasional poultry-to-human cross-species transmission, and the risk of a large-scale spread is extremely low,” the commission added, though it did not say how the man became infected.
The patient was in stable condition and was ready to be discharged from hospital, the commission said. None of his close contacts were found to have contracted the new strain of bird flu.
Experts from the commission warned the public to keep away from sick or dead poultry and to avoid direct contact with live poultry. Members of the public should wear masks and seek medical attention if they develop a fever or respiratory disease symptoms, they said.
Infectious disease specialist Wilson Lam said the public did not need to be overly worried about H10N3 if the virus had a low ability to cause illness and could not spread among humans. However, constant monitoring was still needed to ascertain the nature of the virus, Lam told Apple Daily.
It was unlikely for the H10N3 virus to mutate as a result of human transmission, he added.
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