A case of H5N6 avian influenza has been reported in southwestern China. Is there a risk of the virus spreading?
A 55-year-old man in Bazhong City, Sichuan Province was infected with H5N6 avian influenza. Chinese official media CGTN Report Thursday. According to reports, the man had a fever on June 30 and tested positive on July 6 a few days later. He has been hospitalized.
The local emergency response has been deployed and the area has been disinfected. The media said that expert assessment of the case showed that the risk of large-scale spread of the virus was “very low.”
On July 9 Update Regarding avian influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out that since 2014, a total of 32 laboratory-confirmed cases of human H5N6 infection have been received in the Western Pacific Region, including 19 deaths. At the time of the report, the latest H5N6 case was also from China, with the onset date of May 13, 2021.
According to the organization, when there is a spread of avian influenza virus, there is a risk of “sporadic infection and small group infection” in human cases.
“Therefore, the sporadic human cases are not unexpected,” the WHO explained. “Because the existing and new A(H5) influenza viruses in poultry cause the continuous outbreak of avian influenza, we need to be vigilant in the animal and public health departments.”
Earlier this year, Russia also reported its first human case of infection. H5N8 avian influenza strain Seven employees of a poultry factory. This is the first case of human infection with the H5N8 strain, which is said to be very lethal to birds.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Avian influenza virus type A usually does not affect humans, but there are “rare” cases of human infection. This happens when birds spread the virus in their feces, mucus, or saliva, or when “enough virus” is inhaled or enters a person’s eyes, mouth, or nose.
The CDC said that although reports of the spread of avian influenza A virus from one person to another are “very rare”, because the virus has the ability to mutate, monitoring is still an indispensable part of preventing such cases.
On December 22, 2013, after an outbreak of bird flu in Baoding, Hebei Province, China, a worker sprayed chemicals in front of the police to disinfect the ground.
Photo: Reuters/Stringer
