First human case of H10N3 bird flu reported in China

China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday, May 31 informed that a 41-year old man in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu to have been confirmed as the first human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu.

In the statement, NHC said that the man is a resident of the city of Zhenjiang and was hospitalized on April 28 after developing fever and other symptoms.

The man was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28, the statement confirmed.

Although NHC did not give details on how the man had been infected with the virus.

NHC added that H10N3 is a low pathogenic, or relatively less severe, strain of the virus in poultry, and the risk of it spreading on a large scale was very low.

Reportedly, the man was stable and ready to be discharged from the hospital.

Medical observation of his close contacts had not found any other cases.

It is important to note that many different strains of avian influenza are present in China and some sporadically infect people, usually those working with poultry.

Since the H7N9 strain killed around 300 people during 2016-2017, there have been no significant numbers of human infections with bird flu.

NHC informed that no other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally.