A 41-year-old man from Jiangsu Province in eastern China was hospitalized on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28.

The National Health Commission of Beijing (NHC) stated that a 41-year-old man from Jiangsu Province in eastern China has been confirmed as the first human case of the rare H10N3 avian flu.

There are many different strains of avian influenza virus in China, some of which occasionally infect humans, usually people who deal with poultry. There is no indication that H10N3 spreads easily among humans.

The Health Commission said on Tuesday that the man, a resident of Zhenjiang City, was admitted to the hospital on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28. It did not specify how the man was infected.

He is now in stable condition and can be discharged from the hospital. NHC said that investigations of his close contacts found no other cases.

It added that no other cases of human infection with H10N3 have been reported globally.

NHC added that H10N3 is less pathogenic, which means that it causes relatively mild disease to poultry and is unlikely to cause a large-scale outbreak.

Patient’s exposure “unknown”

The World Health Organization (WHO) replied to Reuters in Geneva: “It is not yet clear where the patient came into contact with the H10N3 virus. No other cases were found in the local emergency surveillance. Population. At present, there is no sign of human-to-human transmission.

The WHO added: “As long as the avian influenza virus spreads among poultry, it is not surprising that avian influenza has sporadic infections in humans. This is a vivid reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic is persistent.”

Philip Klass, regional laboratory coordinator of the Transboundary Animal Disease Emergency Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, said the strain is “not a very common virus.”

He added that in the 40 years up to 2018, only about 160 virus isolates have been reported, mainly in wild birds or waterfowl in some limited areas of Asia and North America, and so far have not been detected in chickens.

China may report its first human case #H10N3 China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday that a 41-year-old man had bird flu.

NHC stated that there have been no other cases of human infection with H10N3 in the world.https://t.co/0uR2tWakK7

— Eric Fegelding (@DrEricDing) June 1, 2021

Claes said it is necessary to analyze the genetic data of the virus to determine whether it is similar to an older virus or whether it is a new mixture of different viruses.

The last human avian influenza epidemic in China occurred at the end of 2016 and lasted until 2017, when it was the H7N9 virus.

According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, H7N9 has infected 1,668 people and claimed 616 lives since 2013.

Following the recent outbreaks of bird flu in Africa and Eurasia, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week urged stricter monitoring of poultry farms, markets and wild birds.

COVID-19 was first detected at a food and animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.