China records cases of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b

According to The Telegraph, a 53-year-old woman in China was recently hospitalized with a strain of bird flu - a type of flu that is infecting mammals around the world.

The patient in Jiangsu province had a history of exposure to poultry and showed symptoms on January 31. Then, on February 4, the patient was admitted to the hospital.

Unlike the bird flu cases in Cambodia - which are linked to an H5N1 strain that has been circulating in the region for a decade - the 53-year-old patient in China was infected with a variant of the bird flu that is causing unprecedented global outbreak in birds.

Avian flu is breaking out in many countries, including infections in mammals. (Photo: timesofisrael).

"Genome sequencing shows that the 53-year-old patient in China was infected with H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b - which is widely circulating in birds. Since 2020, the number of avian influenza outbreaks increases have been reported in wild birds and poultry globally, we are likely to have additional sporadic cases in humans ," said Dr Sylvie Briand, Director of Disease Preparedness and Prevention. and pandemics by the WHO, said.

Last November, China recorded a death from H5N1 in Guangxi province. This week, China also recorded cases of two other types of bird flu, H5N6 and H9N2.

At a press conference last week, Dr. Briand informed that the United Nations agency is really concerned about the possibility of human-to-human transmission of bird flu. Experts say the recent cases are a striking reminder of the "growing" threat posed by bird flu.

"The risk of bird flu to humans is increasing as there are so many viruses in poultry and wild birds. The virus can change at any time and the risk is higher the more it is present in the environment. That doesn't mean a human epidemic is imminent, but no one can control the virus, so it can be said that this is a serious risk," said Professor Munir Iqbal - head of the Avian Influenza Group. at Pirbright Institute (UK) - said.

Professor Munir Iqbal's concern was completely well-founded when Peru announced that 3,500 sea lions in this country had died from H5N1 - 5 times more than previously reported. The main symptoms of sea lions are tremors, convulsions and paralysis. While it's unclear how they became infected, researchers said that given the scale of this outbreak, they cannot rule out the possibility of avian flu spreading from mammal to mammal.

Dr. Pablo Plaza - an expert in veterinary epidemiology and public health at the National University of Comahue in Argentina - said if transmission between mammals had already begun, the avian influenza virus would have replaced change and this may increase risks to human health.

"So far, the above risk seems low, but we need to be vigilant because viruses are always mutating. Some changes in the virus are necessary to adapt to human-to-human transmission, so hopefully they will not happen ," Dr. Pablo Plaza added.