First human death from H3N8 bird flu recorded in China, WHO says

A woman has died from H3N8 bird flu in China in the first known human fatality from the avian influenza strain.

The World Health Organisation confirmed the death from the virus which had not been detected in humans before two non-fatal cases emerged – both also in China – in April and May last year.

The woman who died was a 56-year-old from Guangdong province in southeast China.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals.

The woman fell sick on 22 February, was hospitalised for severe pneumonia on 3 March and died on 16 March, the WHO said.

“The patient had multiple underlying conditions. She had a history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of the disease, and a history of wild bird presence around her home,” the UN health agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

“No close contacts of the case developed an infection or symptoms of illness at the time of reporting,” it added.

While exposure to a live poultry market may have caused the infection, “it is still unclear what the exact source of this infection is and how this virus is related to other avian influenza A(H3N8) viruses that are circulating in animals,” the WHO said, calling for further animal and human investigations.

“It appears that this virus does not have the ability to spread easily from person to person, and therefore the risk of it spreading among humans at the national, regional, and international levels is considered to be low,” the agency said.

“However, due to the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses, WHO stresses the importance of global surveillance to detect virological, epidemiological and clinical changes associated with circulating influenza viruses which may affect human (or animal) health.”

The announcement comes as the UK government announced it would lift measures it had introduced to stop the spread of bird flu.

Bird flu risk levels have been reduced, the government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said in a statement.

The housing order meant that eggs laid by hens who normally had access to outside areas, and chickens produced for meat, could not be marketed as free range.

The change, which will come into effect on 18 April, means poultry and other captive birds will no longer need to be housed and can be kept outside unless they are in a “Protection Zone”.

Human bird flu cases are usually the result of direct or indirect exposure to infected live or dead poultry or contaminated environments.

The WHO said animal influenza infections could result in disease ranging from conjunctivitis or mild flu-like symptoms, to severe acute respiratory disease or even death.

Gastrointestinal or neurological symptoms have been reported but these are rare, it added.