The Chinese National Health Care Committee said that the infection was for a 4-year-old child, but he did not transmit the infection to any of his family members.
She also added that the child had contracted the virus since April 5, as a result of mixing with a pet bird, and was taken to the hospital due to the deterioration of his health.
The newspaper also noted that initial indications are that the H3N8 strain is not yet capable of infecting humans on a large scale, and therefore the risk of a large-scale epidemic remains low.
Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health at Oxford University, says: “Often we see the virus spreading to humans and then not spreading further, so one case is not a major concern.”
“There is no reason to believe it will go any further,” said Professor Paul Degard, of the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, adding that Chinese authorities had not reported any illness in immediate contact with the infected boy.
However, Horby and other disease experts said the widespread and record number of “bird flu” outbreaks across the UK, US and Europe this year was cause for concern, as it increased the chance of bird viruses mixing and mutating for humans.
Avian influenza is a contagious viral disease that affects birds, especially wild aquatic birds, such as ducks and geese, and is transmitted between infected birds, while birds infected with the virus transmit the disease to humans, through contact with their feces and contact with them, but it has not been proven that the virus has transmitted from human to human so far.