Rare case of avian flu in humans recorded in England

A person has contracted bird flu in southwest England, the British health safety agency said on Thursday, noting that the risk to humans remains “very low” despite a major epidemic among poultry.

The UK has been facing an unprecedented outbreak of bird flu since November. Hundreds of thousands of poultry were euthanized due to this viral disease, spread by migratory birds from Russia and Eastern Europe.

The person was found to have become infected after an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza was identified among his birds.

“The person became infected as a result of very close and regular contact with a large number of infected birds, in and around their home over a long period of time,” the agency said in a statement.

The patient “is currently doing well and remains isolated,” he said.

“All contacts of the individual have been traced, including whoever visited the site, and there is no evidence that the infection has spread to anyone else,” he added.

The transmission of avian influenza from birds to humans is “very uncommon”, the statement said.

“Although the risk of bird flu to the general public is very low, we know that some strains have the potential to spread to humans and so we have effective systems in place to detect them in time and take action,” explained the professor. Isabel Oliver, scientific director of the health safety agency.

“There is currently no evidence that this strain detected in the UK can spread from person to person, but we know that viruses evolve all the time and we continue to monitor the situation closely,” he added.

In June last year, China reported the discovery of the world’s first human infection of the H10N3 strain of bird flu. The Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) said at the time that “the risk of a large-scale spread is extremely low”.