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The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday (February 26, 2021) that the risk of human-to-human transmission of the H5N8 strain in bird flu was lower after the first global identification among Russian farm workers.
A separate bird flu strain, H1N1, that spread rapidly worldwide among humans led the WHO to declare an influenza pandemic in 2009-2010. The outbreak turned out to be mild among humans although deadly among poultry.
Russia registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus named influenza A(H5N8) being passed to humans from birds and has reported the matter to the WHO, Anna Popova, head of consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Saturday.
Seven people in Russia were found to be infected with H5N8, but all were asymptomatic following an outbreak on a poultry farm in the southern oblast (region) of Astrakhan, a WHO statement said. The death of 101,000 of the farm’s 900,000 egg-laying hens in December had sparked the investigation, it said.
“All close contacts of these cases were clinically monitored, and no one showed signs of clinical illness,” it said. “Based on currently available information, the risk of human-to-human transmission remains low.”
The WHO advised against any special traveler screening at points of entry or restrictions on travel and or trade with the Russian Federation, it added. Find more.
Source: Online/SZK
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