Woman tests positive for bird flu days after girl, 11, dies from disease
A woman has reportedly tested positive for bird flu just days after an 11-year-old girl died from the disease.
The latest case of H5N1 was detected in 53-year-old woman from Jiangsu province in eastern China, according to BNO news agency.
She is said to have developed symptoms in late January after being in contact with poultry.
The reports come just over a week after an 11-year-old Cambodian girl from the southeastern province of Prey Veng in Cambodia died shortly after tests confirmed she had Type A H5N1 bird flu.
Experts said this was had resulted from animal-to-human rather than human-to-human transmission.
WHO warns we must prepare for bird flu pandemic if mammal strain jumps to humans
It comes after an 11-year-old Cambodian girl died from the virus (ALEX PLAVEVSKI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)But virologist Erik Karlsson, who works at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, confirmed that samples taken from the girl showed some clear changes in the virus which have made it more transmissible.
Speaking to Nature.com, he said: "The virus belongs to clade 2.3.2.1c, which is an endemic strain in the region.
"It is the same strain that resulted in a number of infections in people in 2013 and 2014 in Cambodia, and it has been detected intermittently in poultry ever since then, including in chickens in live bird markets."
Speaking after the death, a top World Health Organization official said the recent global spread of the virus and human infections are “worrying.”
The WHO said it 'urges heightened vigilance from all countries' (Getty Images)Dr. Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the U.N. agency is "in close communication with the Cambodian authorities to understand more about the outbreak."
Speaking ahead of a meeting in Geneva on influenza vaccines, Briand called the global situation "worrying" given the "wide spread of the virus in birds around the world, and the increasing reports of cases in mammals, including humans."
She added that WHO "takes the risk from this virus seriously" and "urges heightened vigilance from all countries".
The WHO has also provided the Cambodian health ministry with 3,000 doses of Tamiflu, an antiviral medication used to treat symptoms of flu viruses.
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