Jun 1, 2021 - Health

China reports first human case of H10N3 bird flu strain

Rebecca Falconer

A veterinarian injects avian flu vaccine into a goose at the Taiyuan Zoo on November 10, 2020 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province of China — A veterinarian injects an avian flu vaccine into a goose at the Taiyuan Zoo in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province of China, in November. Photo: Wei Liang/China News Service via Getty Images

A man in the eastern Jiangsu province of China has become the first person known to have been infected with the rare H10N3 strain of bird flu, the National Health Commission announced Tuesday.

Driving the news: The man from the city of Zhenjiang was hospitalized on April 28 and diagnosed May 28, the governmental health body said in a statement that noted the "risk of large-scale spread is extremely low," per AFP. He's in a stable condition and is expected to be discharged from the hospital.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Bryan Walsh: These kinds of crossover infections seem to happen not infrequently. So far, they haven't amounted to anything big.

What they're saying: The World Health Organization noted in a statement to Reuters that the source of the patient's exposure to the virus was unclear and that "no other cases were found in emergency surveillance among the local population."

"At this time, there is no indication of human-to-human transmission," the WHO addd.

The bottom line, per the WHO: "As long as avian influenza viruses circulate in poultry, sporadic infection of avian influenza in humans is not surprising, which is a vivid reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic is persistent."

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China reports first human case of H10N3 bird flu strain

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