First Case of Avian Influenza in Human Reported In China. Should You be Worried?

H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low.

While the world continues its battle with an invisible and deadly Coronavirus, China reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country’s eastern Jiangsu province, China’s National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

According to a state-run CGTN TV, the 41- year-old patient from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards.

Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low. The patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28, National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating on how the man had got infected with the virus. No other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally, it said.

What is H10N3?

H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low. There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally, those working with poultry.H5N8 is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus).

Who are at risk?

While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China’s Shenyang city.

(Inputs from PTI)