China Bird Flu

It is highly likely that this infection just represents one of the rare incidents of human infection with an avian influenza virus, without any more consequences… Nevertheless, it’s important to make sure that this is just that, a rare isolated incident.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai’s Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Sastre responding to China’s report of what could be the world’s first human case a rare strain of bird flu.

• On June 1, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) issued a statement confirming that a 41-year-old man hospitalized in late April was diagnosed with H10N3 bird flu about a month later. The NHC said the “infection is an accidental cross-species transmission” and the “risk of large-scale transmission is low,” noting that the man was in stable condition.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) told Reuters that the “source of the patient’s exposure to the H10N3 virus is not known at this time, and no other cases were found in emergency surveillance among the local population. At this time, there is no indication of human-to-human transmission.”
• The most recent human epidemic of the bird flu (H7N9), lasted from 2013 to 2017 and infected more than 1,500 in China due to contact with infected poultry, resulting in the loss of over 600 lives, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
• BIG PICTURE: The announcement from NHC comes amid lingering questions about China’s transparency concerning the origins of COVID-19.