China declares that this Wednesday, April 27
A first human case of H3N8 bird flu? Chinese authorities made the announcement on Wednesday, April 27, and reported that a 4-year-old child tested positive for this strain after being hospitalized, AFP said, quoted by multiple media outlets.
Low risk of transmission
The little patient’s family lives in a central region of the country, where there are also many wild ducks. According to China’s Health Ministry, the little boy was infected directly from birds, so it’s “point-to-point transmission between species,” with authorities reminding that “the risk of widespread transmission is low.”
Multiple strains of bird flu that can infect humans
While France is also facing an avian flu epidemic that is forcing many farms to slaughter their birds, Public Health France, in a press release published in early March, recalled that “more than a dozen type A avian or swine flu viruses are capable of are to infect people the present”.
And to add that”human-to-human transmission is raregenerally limited to transmission between a primary case and a member of their entourage or medical personnel”.
Furthermore, “none of the currently circulating avian or swine influenza viruses with zoonotic potential are capable of initiating sustained human-to-human transmission.”