China reports first human death due to H3N8 bird flu
The WHO says the woman, who died in March, likely contracted the virus from a live poultry market and the risk of further spread is low.
A 56-year-old woman in southern China has died after testing positive for bird flu H3N8.
Although H3N8 is “one of the most common” subtypes of flu in birds, it had not been detected in humans until two cases emerged in April and May last year, both in China.
In a statement, the WHO said the woman, who had pre-existing medical conditions including cancer, was hospitalized with severe pneumonia after falling ill in February. She died last month.
“The case was discovered through the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (SARI). None of the case’s close contacts developed an infection or symptoms of illness at the time of reporting,” the WHO said in its statement on Monday.
All three people who contracted H3N8 in China are believed to have been exposed to the virus in live poultry markets. The United Nations health agency said the Chinese government had stepped up controls on the strain and the risk of more infections was low.
“However, due to the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses, WHO continues to emphasize the importance of global surveillance to detect virological, epidemiological and clinical changes associated with circulating influenza viruses that may affect human (or animal) health,” it said.
The H3N8 infection is unrelated to the H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which has devastated poultry and wild birds around the world for the past 18 months and has spread to mammals including foxes, bears and domestic cats.
To infect humans, the H5N1 virus must attach to receptors in the lungs, which the virus cannot easily bind to, William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in Vanderbilt University’s Department of Infectious Diseases, told Al Jazeera in February. .
Forced adaptation to replication in the lungs is why only poultry workers, who inhale contaminated fecal dust, are typically infected, Schaffner added.
The H3N8 virus is less dangerous to both wild birds and domestic poultry than H5N1, and has been known to have been circulating since 2002 after it first emerged in North American waterfowl.
It is also known to infect horses, dogs and seals.