China reports possible first human case of H10N3 bird flu

A 41-year-old man in China has been confirmed as having been infected with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, China’s National Health Commission reported Tuesday.

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According to the NHC, the man, who is from the city of Zhenjiang, northwest of Shanghai, fell ill and was hospitalized on April 28 with a fever and other symptoms. He was diagnosed on May 28 as having H10N3 avian influenza, The Associated Press reported.

It’s believed the man is the world’s first human to contract a case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu.

The particular strain of the bird flu is considered a low pathogenic, meaning a less severe strain of the virus that affects poultry in a country where the virus is common.

The NHC said that the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low. Chinese officials described the infection as “an accidental cross-species transmission.”

Humans can contract the virus, but it usually happens only sporadically. The last time a large number of humans contracted the virus was in 2016-2017 when another strain of Avian flu killed around 300 people. The virus is most often seen in those who work in poultry processing.

Filip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator four the United Nation’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases, told Reuters that the H10N3 strain was “not a very common virus.”

Chinese authorities said the man’s close contacts did not display any “abnormalities,” The Washington Post reported.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of the avian influenza A virus in humans have ranged from mild to severe.

Symptoms seen in humans most often include conjunctivitis (“pink eye”), influenza-like illness (e.g., fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches) sometimes accompanied by nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, severe respiratory illness (e.g., shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, respiratory failure), neurologic changes (altered mental status, seizures) and the involvement of other organ systems.

“Asian lineage H7N9 and HPAI Asian lineage H5N1 viruses have been responsible for most human illness worldwide to date, including most serious illnesses and highest mortality,” according to the CDC website.

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