The first human case of bird flu has been discovered in Chile, the nation’s health minister announced on Wednesday. The ministry released a statement saying the flu was found in a 53-year-old male who had severe influenza symptoms but was otherwise stable. The government is also looking into the origin of the case and who all came into touch with the patient.
Since late last year, Chile has documented instances of the H5N1 bird flu in wild animals. The government stopped exporting chicken as a result of recent incidents in industrial farms. Argentina has also reported industrial cases, but Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of poultry, is still unaffected.
The virus can spread from birds or marine mammals to people, according to Chilean health officials, but there is no documented human-to-human transmission.
At the start of this year, a 9-year-old girl in Ecuador became the first person to contract the bird flu from a human in the South American country. Despite the minimal likelihood of human-to-human transmission, according to international health officials, human bird flu vaccines have been developed “just in case.”
