A 41-year-old Chinese man has become the world's first case of a human getting infected with a rare strain of bird flu. The patient, a resident of China's eastern province of Jiangsu, was infected with H10N3 strain in April.
Reportedly, there are different strains of bird flu in China, with few infecting those working in poultry farms. Transmission of H10N3 strain to humans was not reported until now.
Patient Was Diagnosed with Bird Flu Strain After a Month
The recent revelation was made by the Beijing's National Health Commission (NHC). Without revealing the name of the patient infected with the H10N3 strain, the authorities said that the man, a resident of the city of Zhenjiang, was hospitalized on April 28.
He was diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28. However, the health commission didn't divulge the details of how the man got infected with the bird flu strain.
Disclosing that during the investigation none of the patient's close contacts were found to the be infected with the H10N3 strain, the NHC said his condition was now stable and he is ready to be discharged. The commission also added that no other cases of human infection with H10N3 have been reported globally.
H10N3 Unlikely to Cause Large-Scale Outbreak- NHC
Stating that the H10N3 strain of bird fly is low pathogenic. NHC claimed that it causes relatively less severe disease in poultry and is unlikely to cause a large-scale outbreak. In a communique to Reuters, the World Health Organization (WHO) also said that the source of the patient's exposure to the H10N3 virus is not known at this time, and no other cases were found in emergency surveillance among the local population.
"At this time, there is no indication of human-to-human transmission. As long as avian influenza viruses circulate in poultry, sporadic infection of avian influenza in humans is not surprising, which is a vivid reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic is persistent," the WHO added.
It was H7N9 strain of bird flu that caused havoc in China following its outbreak in 2016. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization stated that the strain has infected 1,668 people and killed 616 since 2013.
