- Earlier this month, an 11-year-old boy died of bird flu, and India is investigating its first recorded human death from bird flu.
- The boy lives in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, and also suffers from leukemia and pneumonia.
- He was hospitalized in the capital on July 2 and died of multiple organ failure 10 days later.
The Ministry of Health of India said that after an 11-year-old boy died of bird flu earlier this month, India is investigating the first record of human deaths from bird flu.
The boy lives in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, and also suffers from leukemia and pneumonia.
He was hospitalized in the capital on July 2 and died of multiple organ failure 10 days later.
The ministry said on Wednesday evening that genome sequencing and virus isolation are in progress, and an epidemiological investigation has been initiated.
Avian influenza mainly occurs in birds and poultry, and cases of human-to-human transmission are extremely rare.
H5N1 first broke out in 1997 and then spread between 2003 and 2011, while H7N9 first appeared in 2013.
Two avian influenza viruses, H5N1 and H7N9, first appeared in 2013 and caused human infections in Asia through infected birds.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and caused 616 deaths since 2013.
In the case of India, the ministry stated that the virus belongs to the H5Nx subtype, which is worrying because they have been shown to have evolved into highly dangerous strains.
It said that since July 16, the doctors and nurses treating the patients have been monitored and no one has reported any symptoms.
Contact tracing was also conducted, but family members, close contacts, and medical staff did not show any symptoms.
Last month, China announced its first human case of avian influenza, and Russia detected the disease among workers at a poultry factory in February.
In recent decades, India has witnessed devastating outbreaks of bird flu, the most serious of which was in 2008, when millions of poultry were culled.
The country is the second most populous country in the world and is currently fighting the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 31 million people and caused more than 40 deaths.
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