On Saturday, Russia announced that it had detected the first case of the H5N8 strain of bird flu in humans.
The head of Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, made the announcement in televised remarks. Scientists at the Vektor laboratory had identified the strain in seven workers at a Southern Russia poultry farm which had experienced an outbreak among the birds in December. No serious health consequences among the workers had been reported, and they are believed to have contracted the virus from the birds on the farm. The World Health Organization had already been alerted to the situation soon before the announcement.
Humans can contract bird flu A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) and swine flu subtypes such as A(H1N1). The bird flu subtype H5N1 is particularly dangerous as it has a 60% mortality rate in humans. According to the WHO, direct transmission between humans of such diseases is limited, and that most transmission comes when humans are in close contact with animals.
Influenza viruses are known to evolve “quite quickly” said Gwenael Vourc’h, head of research at France’s National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
She added that there were likely cases outside Russia, saying to the FTP that this “is probably the tip of the iceberg.”
However, Francois Renaud, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), said that he was “not particularly worried” at this stage as the COVID pandemic had taught countries to react quickly, and that “draconian measures” will be taken to curb the outbreak.
He added that the coronavirus pandemic had taught countries to react quickly to potential health threats. “Draconian measures will be taken to immediately stop the outbreak,” he said.
Avian flu has raged in several European countries including France, where hundreds of thousands of birds have been culled to stop the infection.
The Vektor State Virology and Biotechnology Centre, which picked up the transmission to the poultry farm workers, also developed one of Russia’s coronavirus vaccines. The lab once conducted secret bioweapons research in the Soviet era, and still maintains stockpiles of viruses ranging from Ebola to smallpox.
Vektor chief Rinat Maksyutov said the lab was ready to begin the development of test kits to detect H5N8 in humans, and also to commence working on a vaccine.
Source: Medical Xpress
