Context
A 41-year-old man in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with a rare strain of bird flu known as H10N3.
About the H10N3 bird flu
- It appears to be rare in birds, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and does not cause severe disease.
- Yet avian influenza viruses that have little impact on birds can be much more serious in people, such as the H7N9 strain that killed almost 300 people in China during the winter of 2016-2017. The WHO has said there had been only rare instances of person-to-person spread of the H7N9 virus.
- The risk of further infection with H10N3 is currently believed to be very low, with experts describing the case as “sporadic”.
- And with growing surveillance of avian influenza in the human population, more infections with bird flu viruses are being picked up.
- The strain is “not a very common virus,” and only around 160 isolates of the virus were reported in the 40 years to 2018.
