A strain of bird flu that was discovered in 1965 has infected a human being for the first time.
A 73-year-old Chinese woman died earlier this month of respiratory failure and a post-mortem examination showed she had contracted H10N8 bird flu. The H10N8 strain was discovered in birds in 1965 but had never been found in a human being.
Doctors said the woman was admitted with severe pneumonia, high blood pressure, neuromuscular problems and a heart attack. They had not suspected bird flu at the time of her admission.
Family members in contact with the woman have not shown symptoms of the virus. Officials say the woman had contact with animals at a live bird market four days before she fell ill.
Chinese health officials and the World Health Organization say they will be increasing their surveillance of hospitals to look for more potential H10N8 victims.
This is the second new bird flu virus to infect humans in China in 2013. H7N9, which has killed 45 of the 137 people it has infected, was discovered in March 2013.
It had been a long established scientific fact that when a flu virus obtained an immunity to particular anti-viral flu medications, they would become less effective in transmission between humans.
Now scientists have found the deadly H7N9 bird flu in China does not lose any of its infectivity when it becomes resistant to commonly used drugs like Tamiflu.
The researchers were quick to add that the drug-resistant H7N9 was not more infectious than in the past. They reiterated that the virus is one of the less transmittable viruses between humans.
H7N9 emerged earlier this year in China and has killed 45 of the 139 people confirmed to have been infected with the virus. Scientists had initially believed H7N9 could not transmit between humans but found cases in August of human-to-human transmission.
A separate study in the United States this week said that it was not impossible for H7N9 to mutate into a form that could be easily passed among humans.
Health officials in Hong Kong have announced confirmation of the country’s first case of H7N9 bird flu.
The announcement is a sign that the deadly virus is spreading beyond the borders of mainland China.
The announcement of the confirmed case comes on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that killed 300 people in Hong Kong and seriously damaged the country’s travel and retail industry.
The 36-year-old H7N9 victim reportedly traveled to Shenzhen in mainland China and had contact with poultry during his visit. Officials say the patient is in critical condition in a Hong Kong hospital.
Fresh human cases in eastern China of a deadly new strain of bird flu signal the potential for “a new epidemic wave” of the disease in coming winter months, scientists said on Thursday.
The strain, known as H7N9, emerged for the first time in humans earlier this year and killed around 45 of the some 135 people it infected before appearing to peter out in China During the summer.
But a new case in October in a 35-year-old man from China’s eastern Zhejiang province shows that the virus “has re-emerged in winter 2013” and “indicates a possible risk of a larger outbreak of H7N9 this winter,” according to Chinese researchers writing in the online journal Euro surveillance.
Source: FOX News – FOX News: New China H7N9 bird flu cases ‘signal potential winter epidemic’
Chinese researchers investigating the evolution of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has killed 43 people out of 133 confirmed human cases claim that ducks are the “melting pot” bringing the virus to chickens.
The study claims that ducks picked up various viruses from migrating birds which then mutated and were passed on to chickens. The infected chickens then gave the disease to humans at various animal markets. Continue reading →
Health officials in China confirm that a woman in southern Guangdong province has been confirmed to have contracted the H7N9 bird flu.
The 51-year-old poultry worker is in critical condition after being admitted to a hospital with high fever. Continue reading →
Researchers have released information that the H7N9 bird flu discovered in China can transmit between humans.
This is the first conclusive proof of human-to-human transmission. A 32-year-old woman has become infected with the virus after caring for her father. Both of them died from multiple organ failure. Continue reading →
A chicken in Scott County is confirmed with avian influenza and state officials have quarantined poultry within a 6.2-mile radius around the infected bird’s farm. Continue reading →
In a shocking development to scientists attempting to find the origin of the H7N9 bird flu in China that has killed 36 people, one of the most well known of medicines to fight the disease is showing up ineffective.
Tamiflu, part of the only group of medicines that can treat bird flu, has been found to be ineffective in three of 14 patients in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Continue reading →
The Centers for Disease Control has released a report showing an almost 20% mortality rate for the H7N9 bird flu breaking out across China.
The CDC says the virus appears to have struck older people, a majority of them male, and have admitted that while bird-to-people transmission seems the most common transmission some human-to-human has taken place. Continue reading →
