Health officials in the Australian state of Victoria have announced that for the first time bird flu (H5N1) has been detected in a person and that the child in question has recovered.
In a statement released today, Victorian health officials said that the child who contracted bird flu came home from India in March and was not feeling well. After further tests, the child was diagnosed with avian influenza (H5N1) and fully recovered after treatment. The virus has not been transmitted to others, officials said, noting that there are many different subtypes of avian influenza and most of them do not infect humans.
In the US, bird flu was detected in dairy cows in recent months, cats on a farm were reported to have died after drinking raw milk, and a person working on the farm was reported to have been infected. Underlining that the avian influenza virus in Australia is not the same as in the US, officials said: “Transmission to humans is very rare; few cases of H5N1 in humans have been reported globally and some cases have resulted in death. This is the first confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in humans in Australia and the first time the H5N1 strain has been detected in a human or animal in Australia.”
Source: DHA
