Avian Influenza

News Update April 5, 2013

H5N1 in Humans
China. On March 31st, health officials in China announced the news about three human cases of the H7N9 bird flu virus, including two deaths, in the city of Shanghai and the Anhui province. Over the subsequent days, as many as eight new cases, including three deaths, were reported in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Until this event, H7N9 had not previously been found in humans, making scientists worldwide question the seriousness of this new strain. The victims, ranging in age from 27 to 87, all showed initial symptoms of coughing and fever, which later progressed into pneumonia and breathing difficulties. It is not clear how the people became infected, as only two of the patients worked with poultry. Investigations of individuals with close contacts with the patients show no evidence of human to human transmission. While there is currently no H7N9 vaccine, the World Health Organization is working “to isolate and identify possible candidate viruses that could be used to make a future vaccine, if necessary.” Additionally, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is sharing samples from their patients with scientists from around the world in hopes to learn more about the virus in general and to discover mutations that could make it even more dangerous. Kits capable of detecting the new H7N9 virus have also been distributed to the national influenza monitoring laboratories to enhance detection capability. The sequence of the H7N9 virus from the first three cases have been made public and sequence analysis show that the virus is entirely of avian origin and appears to be a reassortant between viruses in wild bird and domestic poultry. Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture has announced detection of the virus from a pigeon at a food market in Shanghai, thus raising the possibility that other birds besides poultry could transmit the virus.

Visit Pandemic & Avian Flu.gov for all related federal information. The Department of the Interior's role in federal pandemic & avian planning is detailed here.