China reports two bird flu deaths in late 2021

Outbreak News Today
Tue, 08 Mar 2022 12:00 UTC

© China /CIA

Hong Kong health authorities reported today on two fatal human cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) in the Mainland from last year.

The first case involves a 12-year-old female living in Liuzhou in Guangxi, who had visited a live poultry market before onset. She developed symptoms on November 17 last year and was admitted for treatment on November 20. She passed away on December 4.

The second case involves a 79-year-old man living in Liuzhou in Guangxi, who had visited a live poultry market before onset. He developed symptoms on November 18 last year and was admitted for treatment on November 22. He passed away on December 3.

From 2014 to date, 73 human cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) have been reported by Mainland health authorities.

@bactiman63

Comment: Bird flu transmission to humans seems to be relatively rare, and mortality from infection seems to be even rarer.

However it is notable that, at least according to the authorities, there is currently a near global bird flu problem which they're tackling with rather stringent containment measures:

• Flock culled after bird flu outbreak in France's foie gras region, Israel suffers a number of outbreaks across the country (December 2021)
• Highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak already reported in 46 countries, has spread to humans with 862 cases (May 2021)

See also: 450,000 pigs culled since African Swine Fever outbreak reported in South Korea (August 2021)