A 56-year-old woman from the southern province of Guangdong in China has become the first person to die from the H3N8 subtype of avian influenza, a rare strain of bird flu that does not appear to spread between humans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The woman was the third person known to have been infected with the virus, with the first two cases reported in China last year.
While sporadic infections in humans with bird flu are common in China, where avian flu viruses constantly circulate in large poultry and wild bird populations, the H3N8 subtype is rare in humans. It is common in birds, in which it causes little to no signs of disease, and it has also infected other mammals.
The WHO said that the patient had multiple underlying conditions and a history of exposure to live poultry. Samples collected from a wet market visited by the woman before she became ill were positive for influenza A(H3), which suggests that this may have been the source of infection.
There were no other cases found among close contacts of the infected woman, and the virus does not appear to have the ability to spread easily from person to person, according to the WHO. Therefore, the risk of it spreading among humans at the national, regional, and international levels is considered to be low.
Although the H3N8 subtype is rare in humans, monitoring of all avian influenza viruses is considered important given their ability to evolve and cause a pandemic.