H10N3 Bird Flu: China Reports World’s First Case Of Human Infection

The 41-year-old patient from Zhenjiang city is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, PTI reported the state-run CGTN TV as stating.

(Representative Image/Getty)

Beijing: China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, the country’s National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old patient from Zhenjiang city is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, PTI reported the state-run CGTN TV as stating.

The country’s health authorities, however, downplayed this development. Asserting the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low, the health authorities stated that the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans.

China’s National Health Commission in a statement said that the patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28, adding no other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally.

The National Health Commission, however, did not elaborate on how the man had got infected with the virus.

The risk of spreading of H10N3, a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry, on a large scale is said to be very low.

There are many different strains of avian influenza in the country with some at irregular intervals infecting the people, usually those working with poultry.