At a poultry farm in southern Russia, seven workers have been infected with the avian flu variant H5N8. This is the first time that the highly pathogenic virus has been found in humans. So far, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Anna Popova, head of the Russian consumer health agency, stated that the infection has been confirmed through laboratory tests. Following this, the Russians informed the World Health Organization (WHO).
The virus was detected among employees at a poultry farm where H5N8 outbreaks were reported at the end of last year. Popova described the human cases as "mild," according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
"The virus can be transmitted from birds to humans; it has overcome the interspecies barrier," Popova reported. This variant of the flu virus has not yet been transmitted from human to human. According to her, only time will tell how quickly mutations will enable the virus to overcome this barrier as well.
H5N8 has been detected in birds since 1983, and since 2014, when it was found in breeding ducks in South Korea, outbreaks have occurred regularly. In recent months, numerous outbreaks have been reported worldwide, not only in Russia or the Netherlands but also in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and South Korea.
Cases of H5 viruses in humans are rare but are usually found in people who have contact with sick or dead birds.
According to the WHO, in the past twenty years, 239 cases of H5N1 avian flu in humans have been reported in China and Southeast Asia, with 134 people dying. More recently, in January, two people in China were infected with the H5N6 variant, one of whom was a three-year-old girl who died.
"Community awareness of the potential risks to human health is essential to prevent infection in people," said the WHO in a public health assessment of H5 viruses. "Surveillance must continue to detect human cases and early changes in transmissibility and infectivity of the viruses."