In contrast to a recent child death in Cambodia, a previous death in China has been attributed to the currently globally circulating group of avian influenza viruses. The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) near Greifswald announced that the Chinese woman, who had died in October, had been diagnosed with the H5N1 virus of group 2.3.4.4b. This group is currently rampant in many other areas of the world from Europe to South America.
The Chinese woman was 38 years old and lived in the south of the country. She had had contact with infected poultry and developed severe pneumonia. The woman was treated in hospital and died. She is said to have been ill.
An 11-year-old girl died of bird flu in Cambodia last week. In this case another virus group (2.3.2.1c) was detected. These have been circulating in Cambodia for a few years. According to official information, it was the first death related to the disease in the Southeast Asian country since 2014.
Fears about a larger transmission from person to person were initially not confirmed in the case. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) over the weekend, the girl’s father had also tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, but not eleven other contacts of the girl, some of whom had flu symptoms. The father showed no signs of illness. “From what is known so far, the virus does not easily infect humans and human-to-human transmission appears to be uncommon,” it said.
The largest outbreak of avian influenza ever documented is currently raging across several continents. Avian influenza, also known as avian influenza, is an infectious disease that mainly affects waterfowl and other birds. Experts fear that the virus is adapting more and more to mammals and could therefore also become more dangerous to humans.
Infections had also been detected in mammals such as sea lions, raccoons, foxes, bears and martens in recent months. Experts are particularly worried about an outbreak of bird flu on a Spanish mink farm.