H7N9 can spread among family members

Currently, China has discovered two cases of people in a family with the same H7N9 virus in Shanghai. Therefore, it does not exclude the possibility that H7N9 virus can spread from person to person in 'narrow range' , the Chinese Health and Family Planning Committee confirmed April 18.

Ability to spread through family members

According to the commission's report, until now, Shanghai has detected two cases of people in a family infected with H7N9 virus, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The first is three children of a man named Li, who lives in Shanghai, who was one of the first three people to be infected with H7N9. Mr. Li died on March 31 due to severe pneumonia.

Chinese people are extremely worried about the risk
Human-to-human spread of H7N9 virus.

Before Mr. Li became ill, his two sons were also hospitalized with similar symptoms. However, the eldest son was cured and discharged from the hospital and the second son died of severe pneumonia like his father.

According to Xinhua News Agency, from the end of March, all three samples of Mr. Ly's parents were sent to China National Influenza Laboratory for testing. However, only the new H7N9 virus was detected in Mr. Ly's sample. Therefore, on March 31, only Mr. Li was identified as infected with H7N9.

Later, Chinese experts determined that the eldest son had ever been infected with H7N9 and cured. While the second child cannot be determined due to death.

Previously, in Shanghai, both spouses were infected with H7N9 virus.

Before these cases, the Health and Family Planning Committee yesterday confirmed that it is not ruled out that the H7N9 virus can spread from person to person in the 'narrow range' . However, the committee also emphasized that it was also possible that they were either present in H7N9-containing environments or exposed to H7N9 poultry.

Representatives of the Health and Family Planning Committee also affirmed that the occurrence of some family cases does not mean that the virus is changing. H7N9 is still an avian influenza virus and the main route of spread is still from poultry to humans. Therefore, until now, it cannot be confirmed, H7N9 can spread from person to person in 'wide range'.

Tamiflu is effective if found early

On April 18, Chinese media tried to help people distinguish the above two 'concepts' . However, many people are still very worried about the ability of H7N9 to spread from person to person.

By the afternoon of April 17, the number of patients infected with H7N9 had increased to 82 people, including 17 deaths. However, 5 out of 82 cases were cured and discharged.

The first case of H7N9 infection in Beijing was cured.

Most cases of illness are cases of early detection and timely treatment.Ly Hung Vuong, Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Treatment of Beijing Geodetic Hospital, said: 'Currently, some studies and clinical practice have proven, Tamiflu is effective in treatment. for people infected with H7N9. However, the best use is within 36 hours and not more than 48 hours since the outbreak is effective. If this time is over, the effect will not remain much. '

Mr. Li said, the case of 7-year-old girl found H7N9 virus was discharged on April 17 also due to early detection and timely treatment with Tamiflu.

Spread in the 'narrow range' explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Chinese Ministry of Health: the spread from person to person is very random and often happens between people with family or blood close system.However, this spread usually does not appear over many lifetimes but at most only 2 lives.There is no case, an infected person can spread to many people.

Meanwhile, spreading people to a wide range (also called effective spread or sustained spread) is defined as: the spread takes place in a certain community such as schools and neighborhoods. , a person can infect many people and the spread will be maintained from one person to another at a distance.If investigated, there will be patients with all three lives.