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Beijing, Oct. 26 (BNA): A jump in the number of people infected with bird flu in China this year has raised concerns among experts who say a previously circulating strain appears to have changed and may be more contagious to people.
She added that China reported 21 human cases of H5N6 avian influenza to the World Health Organization in 2021, compared to only five cases last year.
Although the numbers are well below the hundreds infected with H7N9 in 2017, infections are serious, leaving many patients in critical condition, and at least six dead.
“The increase in human cases in China this year is worrying. It is a virus that is causing a high death rate,” said Thijs Kuiken, professor of comparative pathology at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam.
The World Health Organization, which highlighted the rise in cases in a statement on October 4, said that most of the cases were in contact with poultry, and there are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.
She said further investigation was needed “urgently” to understand the risks and further spread to people.
Since then, a 60-year-old woman in Hunan Province was hospitalized in critical condition with H5N6 flu on October 13, according to a Hong Kong government statement, Reuters reported.
While human cases of H5N6 have been reported, no outbreaks of H5N6 have been reported in domestic birds in China since February 2020.
China is the world’s largest poultry producer and the largest duck producer, which serves as a reservoir for influenza viruses.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could not be reached for comment on the rise in human cases of H5N6. However, a study published on its website last month stated that “the increasing genetic diversity and geographical distribution of the H5N6 virus poses a serious threat to the poultry industry and human health.”
Avian influenza viruses circulate constantly in domestic and wild birds, but rarely infect humans. However, the development of viruses, which have increased with the growth of poultry numbers, is of great concern because they can mutate into a virus that easily spreads among people and causes an epidemic.
The largest number of H5N6 infections occurred in southwestern Sichuan Province, although cases were reported in neighboring Chongqing and Guangxi, as well as Guangdong, Anhui and Hunan provinces.
Viruses genetically similar to at least 10 were caused by the H5N8 virus that devastated poultry farms across Europe last winter and also killed wild birds in China. This suggests that the recent H5N6 infections in China may be a new species.
“This alternative could be more contagious (to people)…or there could be more of this virus in poultry at the moment and that’s why more people are infected,” Kueken said.
A report from China’s CDC said in September that four of the Sichuanese had domestic poultry and had contact with dead birds. Another had bought a duck from a live poultry market a week before he developed symptoms.
China vaccinates poultry against bird flu, said Philip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator at the Food and Drug Foundation’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases, but the vaccine that was used last year may only partially protect against emerging viruses, preventing outbreaks significantly but It allows the virus to continue to spread. Agriculture Organization.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Backyard farms in China are popular and many people still prefer to buy live chicken from the markets.
The city of Guilin in the Guangxi region, which saw two human cases in August, said last month it had halted live poultry trading in 13 urban markets and would cancel the trade within a year.
HF