Fatalities by bird flu virus in China

China: First death from new bird flu virus

18/12/2013

The new bird flu virus H10N8 claimed its first death toll in China. This form was previously only noticed by the transfer from animal to animal. It seems that the pathogen apparently changed. The Chinese authorities have announced that as early as December 6, a 73-year-old woman died of respiratory failure in the eastern Chinese province of Nanchang. Six days earlier, she was hospitalized with severe pneumonia and a heart attack.

Bird flu or influenza, also known as avian influenza, affects mainly chickens and turkeys. But not only under free-range poultry spreads the virus. The disease has also been detected in pheasants, guinea fowl and other wild birds in the past.

According to the Chinese authorities, the woman had become infected with a live poultry market when visiting a market. Relatives who were still in contact with her did not have any bird flu symptoms. The authorities also see no danger for a widespread spread. "There is a low risk that the virus can infect and transmit humans," said a spokesman for the health department. The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, is working with the Chinese authorities to investigate the new virus type. Timothy O.´Leary, WHO spokesman in Manila explained that „Exact investigations must take place when a virus succeeds in jumping from one species to another.“

How dangerous is the H7N9 virus??
At the beginning of December, the health authorities in Hong Kong triggered an avian influenza alarm. A 36-year-old domestic help from Indonesia was infected with a visit to China with the new bird flu virus H7N9.

As early as March, H7N9 was the second H5N1 avian influenza virus classified as dangerous by international authorities following its discovery. Since then, there have been 142 infections in China, of which 45 cases have been fatal. At that time, the authorities had closed poultry markets to prevent a large-scale outbreak.

The WHO stated that so far no persistent transmission of H7N9 virus has been observed from human to human. Researchers had in the trade magazine „sience“ explains that the dangerousness of the H7N9 virus apparently „was greatly overestimated“. The effects of the 2003 H5N1 virus, in which at least 384 people have died, are still in the minds of experts „for extra caution“. The facts so far, however, are rather reason for reassurance, because H7N9 is primarily an animal virus. Most patients have probably been infected with close contact with live poultry. Only a few seem to have become infected with sick relatives. (Fr)