February 23, 2021

Russia registers first case of H5N8 bird flu human infection in the world

Anna Popova, head of consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said Russia has registered the first case of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu being transmitted to humans, with the matter reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reported.

This is the first case of the H5N8 bird flu strain being passed to humans. Outbreaks of the virus have been reported in China, Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and north Africa, but has so far been confined among poultry. Bird flu strains known to be able to spread to humans are H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2.

Popova said the virus was transmitted to seven poultry plant workers south of the country following a H5N8 outbreak in December. She adds that the workers feel fine now, and there is no sign of virus transmission between humans.

The European arm of WHO has confirmed it was notified of the human transmission and acknowledged this would if confirmed be the first time the strain had infected people, and the cases were asymptomatic with no human to human transmission reported.

WHO said it will discuss Russian authorities to investigate and assess the impact on public health.

The Vector Institute in Siberia said it will begin development for a vaccine against H5N8, according to news agency RIA.

- Reuters