China's National Health Commission on Tuesday informed that the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country's eastern Jiangsu province has been reported.
A 41-year-old man, living in Zhenjiang, a city in the eastern part of the province, has been infected from poultry, the statement said. Currently, his condition is stable.
The patient on May 28 was diagnosed with having the H10N3 avian influenza virus, a statement by the National Health Commission, describing how the man contracted the virus.
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Previously, no case of infection with H10N3 has ever been reported globally.
The health authorities have said that the risk of spreading the virus on a large scale is very low.
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried a genome sequence on a blood sample from the patient last week and confirmed that it was the H10N3 strain. The local authorities then have traced the patient’s contacts and he has been kept under medical observation.
H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus found in poultry and the transmission risk to a larger population is less. Avian influenza strains are of various types in China and cases of some infection is uncommon, generally those working with poultry.
H5N8 is a subtype of the Influenza A virus, which is also known as the bird flu virus and only shows a low risk to humans, yet it can become highly fatal to wild birds and poultry. In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China’s Shenyang city.
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The NHC statement also said that the experts have assessed that a full genetic evaluation of the virus confirmed that the H10N3 virus was of avian origin. They have also advised people in the region to avoid contact with sick or dead poultry and also to evade contact with live birds. The NHC cautioned people to pay attention to food hygiene, wear masks, improve self-protection awareness, and check for fever and respiratory symptoms and report.