Three more people in China have tested positive for H5N6 bird flu, officials say. Experts have called for increased surveillance amid a rising number of human cases during the past few months.
The Guangdong Provincial Health Commission said in a statement on Thursday that a 52-year-old man from Dongguan City had tested positive for H5N6 bird flu. “The patient is currently being treated at a designated hospital in Dongguan,” the commission said.
Another case was reported in Yongzhou in Hunan Province, where a farmer has been hospitalized in critical condition. The 66-year-old man fell ill in late September and samples collected from poultry in his backyard were found to be positive for bird flu (H5), according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Another case, involving a 58-year-old woman from Hunan Province, was disclosed by Chinese officials at a WHO meeting in September, according to a new report from the agency.
Only 52 people have been infected with H5N6 bird flu since the first confirmed case in 2014, but 20 of them were reported during the past 4 months, and more than half of all cases were reported this year alone.
H5N6 bird flu is known to cause severe illness in humans of all ages and has killed nearly half of those infected, according to WHO. There are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission but a 61-year-old woman who tested positive in July denied having contact with live poultry.
A study which was published by China’s Center for Disease Control in September identified several mutations in two recent cases of H5N6 bird flu. “The increasing trend of human infection with avian influenza virus has become an important public health issue that cannot be ignored,” the researchers warned.
