China reports world's first case of human infection with H10N3 bird flu

BEIJING – China has registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus H10N3 being passed to humans from birds, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said Tuesday.

Outbreaks of the other strains of bird flu have been reported in parts of the world including Russia, Europe, some Middle East, and North African countries but only in poultry.

In the first case in an East Asian country, a 41-year-old resident of the city of Zhenjiang was hospitalized after developing a fever and other symptoms. The man has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu.

He was diagnosed with H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28 however further details about the event are not yet disclosed by the Chinese authorities.

China’s Health commission however stated that H10N3 is a low pathogenic strain of the influenza virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low.

Meanwhile, the man who contracted the virus was said to be stable and ready to go home from the medical facility. Experts also added that his close contacts had not found any other cases.

China is the host country for many different strains of avian influenza. There have been no significant numbers of human infections with bird flu since the H7N9 strain killed around 300 people in 2016.