The risk of further H10N3 infection is currently thought to be very low, with experts describing the recent case of a Chinese man with H10N3 as ‘sporadic’.
Workers give an H9 bird flu vaccine to chicks at a farm in Changfeng district, Anhui province, April 14, 2013. Photo: Reuters. A 41-year-old man in eastern China’s Jiangsu province has been confirmed as the first case of a rare bird flu called H10N3, Beijing’s National Health Commission (NHC) said. The man, a resident of Zhenjiang City, was hospitalized on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28, the NHC said on June 1, adding that his condition was stable. determined. The NHC did not give details on how the man became infected but said a check of his close contacts found no other cases and the risk of transmission was very low. What does the world know about H10N3? Little is known about this virus, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which appears to be very rare in birds and does not cause serious illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that although the source of the patient’s exposure to the H10N3 virus has not been identified and no other cases have been found in the local population, there is still no indication of the disease. person-to-person transmission. However, avian influenza viruses may have little effect on birds but can have much more severe effects in humans, such as the H7N9 strain that killed nearly 300 people in China during the winter of 2016-2017. The WHO says there are only rare cases of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 virus. What is the risk of H10N3 infection? The risk of further transmission of H10N3 is currently thought to be very low, with experts describing the case as “sporadic”. Such cases occasionally occur in China, where there are large numbers of domestic and wild birds of many species. And with increased surveillance of avian influenza among the population, more and more cases of avian influenza virus infections are occurring. In February, Russia reported its first human case of the highly damaging H5N8 virus on poultry farms across Europe, Russia and East Asia last winter. Authorities said seven people infected with the virus had no symptoms. Experts would be wary of any cluster of H10N3 cases, but for now, a single case is not a cause for concern. The WHO told Reuters in a statement: “As long as avian influenza viruses are circulating in poultry, sporadic human infection of avian influenza is not surprising, it is a living reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic persists.” According to Filip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator of FAO’s Transboundary Animal Diseases Emergencies Center in the Asia Pacific regional office, only about 160 virus isolates have been reported. for 40 years to 2018. However, influenza viruses can mutate rapidly and mix with other strains circulating on farms or among migratory birds, known as “reclassification,” which means they can produce new strains of the virus. Genetic changes pose a threat of transmission to humans. What more will the world need to know? The genetic sequence of the virus that infects the patient has yet to be published and will be needed to fully assess its risk. Scientists will want to know how easily H10N3 can infect human cells to determine if it could pose a greater risk. For example, the H5N1 variant that first infected humans in 1997 is the most lethal, killing 455 people globally to date. It takes only a few mutations before the H5N1 variant is capable of spreading easily from person to person, said Ben Cowling, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. Having the genetic information of the H10N3 variant will help assess whether it is “closer to the virus we should be worried about,” he said.
You must log in to post a comment.