A four-year-old has become the first infected case of H3N8 bird flu in China.
The boy living in central Henan province tested positive for the strain after being hospitalized earlier this month with a fever and other symptoms and has been in contact with chickens and crows at his home.
The first human infection of the H3N8 strain of bird flu was recorded in Henan province.
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China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said the risk of it spreading among people was low.
The NHC said that the boy was infected directly by birds and the strain was not found to have “the ability to effectively infect humans” while the tests of the close human contacts found “no abnormalities”.
The boy’s case was a “one-off cross-species transmission, and the risk of large-scale transmission is low” even as NHC warned the public to stay away from dead or sick birds and seek immediate treatment for fever or respiratory symptoms.
The H3N8 variant has previously been detected around the world in horses, dogs, birds and seals.
