First H3N8 bird flu victim may have caught virus from a WET MARKET

A Chinese woman who became the first person ever to die from the H3N8 strain of bird flu is believed to have caught the deadly strain from a wet market.

The 56-year-old from Guangdong province fell ill for the first time on February 22 and was hospitalized with severe pneumonia on March 3.

She died 13 days later March 16.

But officials understand she contracted the virus at a wet market where she spent some time before falling ill, after samples taken from the market tested positive for influenza A (H3).

She is only the third person ever to be officially diagnosed with H3N8, one of the most common strains in birds but poorly adapted to infect humans.

The woman, from Guangdong province, fell ill for the first time on February 22. She was hospitalized on March 3 with severe pneumonia and died on March 16.

So far, none of the woman’s close contacts have symptoms of infection.

The WHO was not informed of the matter until March 27 — a month after Chinese health officials learned of the infection.

China has previously faced criticism for failing to make available key information about the spread of Covid in its country.

It comes as vaccine makers have said they are “ready” for a human avian flu pandemic, while fears of a zoonotic spillover are mounting.

The Chinese patient had several underlying conditions and a history of exposure to live birds before becoming ill, as well as previous presence of wild birds around her home.

The case was picked up through the World Health Organization’s Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) Surveillance System, which tracks these types of infections.

The H3N8 variant is common in birds, horses and dogs and has even been found in seals, but has rarely found its way into the human population.

Two young boys were struck by the same virus in China in unlinked cases in April and May last year, but both survived.

Like other strains of bird flu, human infections can occur when enough virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or is inhaled.

Although there are only a limited number of known cases of this strain worldwide, the disease is believed to be similar to other avian flu in humans.

Common symptoms include fever, fatigue, nausea, and other flu-like symptoms.

Sufferers may experience diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain, chest pain and bleeding from the nose and gums, and pink eye.

The WHO said: ‘As bird flu viruses continue to be detected in poultry populations, more sporadic human cases are expected in the future.’

China’s slow reporting of this infection draws parallels to the country’s initial response to the Covid pandemic.

The country has been accused of covering up early cases and has failed to keep up with the fight against the origins of the virus.

Dr. Steven Salzberg, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMail.com: “Of course, China should report such cases immediately, as any country should, but China has occasional bird flu cases every year.

“The (much) bigger problem is China’s persistent practice of selling birds and other animals for food in live animal markets. Scientists have been saying for years (decades now) that China should close these markets, but they won’t.

‘So a good question is whether this case comes from a live animal market. The [WHO] report is vague on that question.’

In 2003, China was accused of covering up details about the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The Chinese government was criticized for its slowness in releasing information about the outbreak after a Beijing hospital was closed.

This case is part of a spate of human avian flu cases that emerged in early 2023.

Earlier this year, a Cambodian man and his daughter were diagnosed with H5N1, another strain of bird flu.

Their cases sparked international concern, with many experts fearing citing the virus had mutated to better infect humans after ripping through the world’s bird population.

The bird flu outbreak, which began early last year, is the largest in history, affecting more than 200 million domestic birds worldwide, in addition to countless wild birds.

It has already leaked onto mammals such as minks, foxes, raccoons and bears, raising fears that it may soon acquire disturbing new mutations that could cause it to cause a human pandemic.

Further testing revealed that the H5N1 strain was not spreading rapidly among the world’s wild birds among the Cambodian family, but instead a variant known to spread locally in the Prey Veng province in which they lived.

Since the ongoing outbreak broke out in October 2021, there has been only one case of a Briton becoming infected with H5N1.

Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon, became infected with the virus in early 2022 after his ducks, some of which lived in his home, became infected.

No one else is known to have contracted the virus.

People who have close or prolonged unprotected contact — without respiratory and eye protection — with infected birds or places where sick birds or their mucus, saliva, or feces are contaminated may be at greater risk of infection with the avian flu virus.

It is unlikely that a human will contract the virus from eating poultry and fowl, as it is heat sensitive and cooking the poultry properly will kill the virus.

Symptoms in humans include high fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and a general feeling of malaise.

Additional early symptoms may include abdominal and chest pain and diarrhea.

It can quickly develop into a serious respiratory illness, including shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and pneumonia.

People can also suffer from altered mental status or seizures.

In the UK, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, a division of DEFRA, assesses avian flu risk to humans on a weekly basis.

The group is also looking at possible human vaccine candidates if the virus spreads to humans.

The UKHSA has currently set the threat level to level three as there is “evidence” of changes in the virus genome that could cause a “mammal infection”, it said.

Any “sustained” transmission of the pathogen from mammal to mammal would raise the threat level to four, while it would rise to five from human to human.

The UKHSA also confirmed last month that it had updated its modeling scenarios of how an outbreak among humans in the UK could begin.

All scenarios were considered to have an R-value – a measure of a virus’s ability to spread – between 1.2 and 2.

This means that every 10 people infected would pass the virus on to 12 to 20 others and the outbreak would double every three to 11 days.

At worst, the scientists estimate that one in 20 people who get bird flu will die from the virus.

An infected bird may appear lethargic, stop eating, have swollen body parts, and cough and sneeze. Other birds may die suddenly without any symptoms.