The National Commission of China has issued a statement reporting the detection of a human case of H10N3 bird flu in Jiangsu province. The patient is a 41-year-old man who developed fever and other symptoms at the end of April and had to be admitted a few days later, although he is currently stable. According to the statement, on May 28, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention made a determination of the complete genome sequence of the patient's samples and the result was positive for the H10N3 virus. In Jiangsu province, patient contact tracing and local screening were conducted but no further cases were found.
The risk is very low
According to the Chinese authorities, the H10N3 virus is of avian origin and does not have the ability to effectively infect humans. No more human cases of H10N3 have been reported globally, and the H10N3 virus is also not particularly aggressive among poultry. This would be an occasional transmission between poultry and human species, and the risk of large-scale transmission is extremely low. In fact, in the last 40 years only about 160 cases of this strain have been detected, the majority in aquatic and wild birds.
In any case, the experts have recalled the health precautions that must be taken: avoid contact with sick and dead birds, do not approach live birds, maintain food hygiene and go to the doctor if compatible symptoms such as fever or difficulty breathing are detected .
