World’s First Human Case Of Bird Flu Strain ‘H10N3’ Confirmed By China

China reported the world’s first human infection of the ‘H10N3’ bird flu strain on Tuesday but also stated that its risk of spreading widely among people was low.

According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), a 41-year-old man was admitted to a hospital in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28. He was having fever symptoms and was diagnosed with H10N3 after a month.

“The risk of widespread is very low,” the NHC stated, adding that the man’s condition was stable and no abnormalities had been reported by his close contacts.

It described H10N3 as ‘low infective’ which is less expected to cause death or critical illness in birds.

As per NHC, previously no human cases of H10N3 had been reported in the world.

Numerous strains of bird flu have been reported among animals in China but widespread epidemics in the case of humans are rare.

The last human outbreak of bird flu occurred in late 2016 to 2017 in China, with the H7N9 virus. 

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and taken 616 lives since 2013.

After recent avian flu epidemics in Africa and Eurasia, the head of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention advised stricter observation in poultry farms, wild birds, and markets.

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Covid-19 was first detected at an animal market in the Chinese city of ‘Wuhan’ in late 2019.