Now, a 41-year-old man from Jiangsu province has been hospitalized with the H10N3 strain. China’s National Health Commission has since reported him as being in a stable condition.
No other human case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu has been reported around the world, according to the Chinese National Health Commission.
The Commission’s statement claims, “This infection is an accidental cross-species transmission. The risk of large-scale transmission is low.” The statement is addressing concerns about emerging diseases heightened now more than ever after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to AP News:
“But unlike with coronaviruses, there are global influenza surveillance systems that watch for human cases of bird flu, since a strain named H5N1 cropped up in the late 1990s in Hong Kong’s crowded live-poultry markets.”
Another bird flu strain, H7N9, infected over 1,500 people in China between 2013 and 2017, after the people were in close contact with infected chickens.
Authorities “aren’t surprised” to discover cases of humans sometimes contracting strains of bird flu because of this history, and signs that the strains may be spreading between people are closely monitored, reported the Associated Press.
