In 2021, Chinese authorities reported 21 cases of avian influenza subtype H5N6. Last year there were four times
According to a report published in the magazineEmerging Infectious Diseases (EID) 2020, scientists first identified H5N6 avian influenza in poultry in Laos in 2013. And since 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a total of 49 confirmed cases of human infection with H5N6. Such data is published by WHO in its weekly update on avian influenza data.
21 cases of disease registeredin China this year, has led to at least six deaths and left many of the remaining infected people in critical condition. “The rise in the number of human cases in China this year is cause for concern. This is a virus that causes a high mortality rate,” Thijs Kuiken, professor of comparative pathology at Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands, told Reuters. According to the EID report, the mortality rate for H5N6 infections in humans is 67%.
However, WHO confirmed that out of 21Most infected people in China have had contact with poultry, and there have been no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission. However, the WHO representative also noted that there is an urgent need to expand geographic surveillance of affected areas in China and nearby regions to understand the recent increase in human cases.
Possibly currently circulating H5N6is a new variant that infects people more easily than previous versions of the virus, Thijs Kuiken told Reuters. He also suggested that there are more infected poultry in Asia, which is also a cause for concern.
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