#h7n9

Just Small Genetic Tweaks To Chinese Bird Flu Virus Could Fuel A Human Pandemic

by Nell Greenfieldboyce / NPR Health

A study published Thursday shows how a bird flu virus that's sickening and killing people in China could mutate to potentially become more contagious.

Just three changes could be enough to do the trick, scientists report in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

And the news comes just as federal officials are getting ready to lift a moratorium on controversial lab experiments that would deliberately create flu viruses with mutations like these.

Public health officials have been worried about this bird flu virus, called H7N9, because it's known to have infected more than 1,500 people — and killed 40 percent of them. So far, unlike other strains that more commonly infect humans, this deadly virus does not spread easily between people.

The fear is that if it mutates in a way that lets it spread more easily, the virus will sweep around the globe and take a heavy toll, because people's immune systems haven't ever been exposed to this type of flu before. Past pandemics caused by novel flu viruses jumping from animals or birds into people have killed millions.

Bu Kezde Kuş Gribi! İnsanda İlk Kuş Gribi Çin’de Görüldü

Bu Kezde Kuş Gribi! İnsanda İlk Kuş Gribi Çin’de Görüldü İnsanlarda çok nadir görülen H10N3 olarak bilinen kuş gribi Doğu Çin’de 41 yaşındaki Çinli bir erkekte görüldü.  Jiangsu Eyaletin’de yaşayan hasta 28 Nisan’da hastaneye kaldırıldı. Hastanın durumunun stabil olduğu bildirildi.  Bu Kezde Kuş Gribi! İnsanda İlk Kuş Gribi Çin’de Görüldü Bugüne kadar H10N3 vakası hiçbir yerde bildirilmemişti.…

The first human case of avian flu has been confirmed in China

China announced the world’s first human transmission of the H10N3 avian influenza virus to humans on Tuesday, but said the risk of spreading the disease to humans was low.

A 41-year-old man was hospitalized with fever symptoms in eastern Zhengjiang City on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later. This comes from an online statement from China’s National Health Commission (NHC).

“The risk of spreading is very small,” said the NHC, adding that the man was in stable condition and his close contact had not reported any “anomalies”.

He described H10N3 as not pathogenic – less likely to cause death or serious illness – in birds. The NHC says there have been no previously reported human cases of H10N3 in the world.

Read More: 500,000 Sinopharm vaccination shots arrive in Islamabad on a PIA aircraft

Several strains of avian flu have been found in animals in China, but mass 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, H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and claimed 616 lives since 2013.

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

The first human case of avian flu has been confirmed in China

China announced the world’s first human transmission of the H10N3 avian influenza virus to humans on Tuesday, but said the risk of spreading the disease to humans was low. A 41-year-old man was hospitalized with fever symptoms in eastern Zhengjiang City on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later. This comes from an online statement from China’s National Health Commission (NHC). “The…

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A new strain of bird flu which kills 38 per cent of those it infects has been identified by the deputy chief medical officer for England as the most likely candidate to spark a worldwide flu pandemic.