The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that a Chinese woman became the first person to pass away from a type of bird flu that was uncommon in humans, and added that the strain does not seem to transmit between people.
The WHO said in a statement late on Tuesday that the 56-year-old lady from the southern province of Guangdong was the third individual to have been infected with the H3N8 subtype of avian influenza.
The first two cases were recorded last year, and all those cases belong to China.
Late this month, the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced the third infection, although it made no mention of the woman’s passing. The WHO reported that the patient had many underlying illnesses as well as a history of contact with live poultry.
In China, where avian flu viruses are continuously spread across vast populations of domestic poultry and wild birds, sporadic infections in people with bird flu are quite prevalent.
The WHO said that samples taken from a wet market the woman visited before becoming unwell tested positive for influenza A(H3), indicating this may have been the location of infection.
H3N8 is widespread in birds, where it rarely manifests as an illness despite being rare in humans. Apart from birds, the virus has infected other mammals
The WHO reported that none of the affected woman’s close contacts had any cases.
The WHO stated in the statement that the risk of the virus spreading among humans at the national, regional, and worldwide levels is regarded as low because it does not appear to have the ability to transfer quickly from person to person.
The capacity of all avian influenza viruses to develop and spread a pandemic makes monitoring of these viruses crucial.
