Evidence of H7N9 between humans
Print Edition
The first scientific analysis of probable human-to-human transmission of a deadly new strain of bird flu that emerged in China this year gives the strongest evidence yet that the H7N9 virus can pass between people, scientists said yesterday.
Research published in the British Medical Journal analyzing a family cluster of cases of H7N9 infection in eastern China found it was very likely the virus “transmitted directly from the index patient to his daughter.”
Experts commenting on the research said it provided “a timely reminder of the need to remain extremely vigilant.”
“The threat posed by H7N9 has by no means passed,” James Rudge and Richard Coker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in a commentary in the journal.
However, the scientists who led the study stressed that the virus has not yet gained the ability to transmit from person to person efficiently.
133 people infected
Unknown in humans until February, the virus has so far infected at least 133 people in China, killing 43 of them, according to World Health Organization data.
Most cases have been in people who had visited live poultry markets or had close contact with live poultry several days before falling ill.
The BMJ study, lead by Bao Changjun at the Jiangsu Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed two H7N9 patients — a father and daughter — in eastern China in March 2013.
The first patient — a 60-year-old man — fell ill five to six days after his last exposure to live poultry.
He was admitted to hospital on March 11, transferred to an intensive care unit on March 15 but died of multi-organ failure on May 4.
The second patient, his healthy 32-year-old daughter, had no known exposure to live poultry but provided direct bedside care for her father in the hospital.
She developed symptoms six days after her last contact with her father and died of multi-organ failure.
Strains of the virus taken from each patient were “almost genetically identical” — a strong suggestion the virus was transmitted directly from father to daughter.
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