No poultry contact in half H7N9 patients
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
April 20, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HEALTH officials are raising further questions about the source of the new strain of bird flu infecting humans in China after data indicated that more than half of the patients had no contact with poultry.
The H7N9 virus has been found in 91 people, including one reported in Jiangsu Province and three in Zhejiang Province yesterday, and 17 of them have died.
But it is not clear how people are becoming infected and the World Health Organization says there is no evidence of the most worrying scenario - sustained transmission between people.
The WHO's China representative, Michael O'Leary, issued data yesterday showing that half of the cases analyzed had no known contact with poultry, the most obvious potential source, but he said it appeared human-to-human transmission was rare.
"This is still an animal virus that occasionally infects humans," he said. "With rare exceptions, we know that people are not getting sick from other people."
Experts say it may be premature to rule in or rule out whether people sick with the virus have been in contact with poultry, and note that contact with wild birds is even more difficult to establish.
A scientific study published last week showed the H7N9 strain was a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia. One of those three strains is thought to have come from a brambling, a type of small wild bird.
An international team of epidemiologists and other experts led by the WHO and Chinese government officials will visit live chicken markets and hospitals over the next several days in Shanghai and Beijing.
Some bird samples have tested positive and China has culled thousands of birds and shut down some live poultry markets.
China's poultry sector has recorded losses of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) since reports of the new flu surfaced two weeks ago.
Chinese experts have so far found no H7N9 virus on wild birds in places where human infections have been reported.
Laboratory tests showed 861 of the 1,300 samples collected in Shanghai, Beijing, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui were negative, while the rest are still being examined.
The H7N9 virus has been found in 91 people, including one reported in Jiangsu Province and three in Zhejiang Province yesterday, and 17 of them have died.
But it is not clear how people are becoming infected and the World Health Organization says there is no evidence of the most worrying scenario - sustained transmission between people.
The WHO's China representative, Michael O'Leary, issued data yesterday showing that half of the cases analyzed had no known contact with poultry, the most obvious potential source, but he said it appeared human-to-human transmission was rare.
"This is still an animal virus that occasionally infects humans," he said. "With rare exceptions, we know that people are not getting sick from other people."
Experts say it may be premature to rule in or rule out whether people sick with the virus have been in contact with poultry, and note that contact with wild birds is even more difficult to establish.
A scientific study published last week showed the H7N9 strain was a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia. One of those three strains is thought to have come from a brambling, a type of small wild bird.
An international team of epidemiologists and other experts led by the WHO and Chinese government officials will visit live chicken markets and hospitals over the next several days in Shanghai and Beijing.
Some bird samples have tested positive and China has culled thousands of birds and shut down some live poultry markets.
China's poultry sector has recorded losses of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) since reports of the new flu surfaced two weeks ago.
Chinese experts have so far found no H7N9 virus on wild birds in places where human infections have been reported.
Laboratory tests showed 861 of the 1,300 samples collected in Shanghai, Beijing, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui were negative, while the rest are still being examined.
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