A woman in China has become the first woman to die after testing positive for H3N8 bird flu. The 56-year-old woman from the southern province of Guangdong was the third person known to have been infected with that subtype of avian influenza, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The strain is “one of the most frequently found” subtypes of flu in birds, it had not been detected in humans before two cases emerged in April and May last year, both in China. The WHO says the risk of the virus spreading among humans is "considered to be low" and that no other cases among close contacts of the infected woman were found.
The woman, who had pre-existing medical conditions including cancer, had been admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia after falling ill in February. She died last month.
“The case was detected through the severe acute respiratory infection surveillance system. No close contacts of the case developed an infection or symptoms of illness at the time of reporting,” WHO said in its statement on Monday.
"Based on available information, it appears that this virus does not have the ability to spread easily from person to person, and therefore the risk of it spreading among humans at the national, regional, and international levels is considered to be low."
Samples collected from a wet market visited by the woman before she became ill were positive for influenza A(H3), said the WHO, suggesting this may have been the source of infection.
There were no other cases found among close contacts of the infected woman, it added. All of the cases have been in China, with the first two cases reported last year.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
The H3N8 infection is unrelated to the H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which has devastated poultry and wild birds around the world in the last 18 months and has spread to mammals including foxes, bears and domestic cats.
The H3N8 virus is less dangerous for both wild birds and domestic poultry than H5N1, and is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl.
