China confirms first human case of H10N3 bird flu strain

China on Tuesday reported the world’s first human infection with the H10N3 bird flu strain in the world, but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low.

A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with symptoms of fever in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) reported in an online statement.

“The risk of large-scale spread is extremely low,” said the NHC, which added that the man was in a stable state and that his close contacts had not reported “anomalies”.

He described H10N3 as low pathogen (less likely to cause death or serious illness) in birds.

The NHC said there had been no previously reported human cases of H10N3 in the world.

Several strains of bird flu have been found among animals in China, but massive outbreaks in humans are rare.

The last human bird flu epidemic in China occurred in late 2016 to 2017, with the H7N9 virus.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNHCR), H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and killed 616 since 2013.

Following recent bird flu outbreaks in Africa and Eurasia, the head of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week called for tighter surveillance of poultry farms, markets and wild birds.

COVID-19 was first detected at a food and animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

© 2021 AFP