Scientists have found mutations of Bird Flu in a recently infected man in Chile. The researchers have warned that this Avian Influenza virus, H5N1, poses a risk of infection among humans.
According to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), the risk of human-to-human transmission is very low. However, these new changes are ‘concerning’. According to the health body, this case suggests that the potential risk of human spillover is increasing.
The US Health officials reveal that past animal studies suggest these mutations could cause the virus to be more harmful or spread more easily.
Last month, Chile’s Health Ministry confirmed that a 53-year-old man has tested positive for H5N1 virus. The man was reported to be in serious but stable condition with severe pneumonia.
According to media reports, a sample of the virus isolated from man contains two genetic mutations that are signs of adaptation to mammals. Reportedly, this type of flu, named Type A H5N1, was first identified as a threat to people during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong, when visitors to live poultry markets caught it.
Fears of pandemic-like situation
According to ECDC, there have been 874 human cases, including 458 deaths (case-fatality rate: 52.4 per cent), of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) reported in 23 countries since 2004. To date, no human to-human transmission has been detected, ECDC stated.
In a report published this week, the agency said that the risk assessments contain “high uncertainty” due to the increasing transmission of H5N1, including its introduction to the Americas and the spread in animals.
Last month, a woman in China was hospitalised with H5N1, while a young girl died earlier this month and her father was quarantined in Cambodia after contracting the virus.
The agency report also revealed that during the sequencing of the Cambodia cases, it was found that the virus did have the mutations expected to allow it to infect humans but there were no signs that the pathogen has changed to better spread between people. According to media reports, the experts are worried that the scale of the current spread could give the virus more opportunities to mutate, which could enable H5N1 to better spread in humans.
Is a vaccine against bird flu needed?
In November last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) called on its four global vaccine laboratories to develop a human vaccine for the specific strain of avian flu.
Reportedly, labs in Australia, Japan, the UK and US are working together to produce a working vaccine 2.3.4.4b strain of the H5N1 virus as concerns grow that it could mutate to become easily transmissible to people.
Official figures from the WHO state that 60 per cent of the 868 people infected with avian flu over the past 20 years have died.
Last year, UK scientists have tested a human vaccine for bird flu. Although it has shown signs of success it would not be a jab specific to the current 2.3.4.4b strain.
“The mutations do not change public health officials’ assessment of the overall risk to people from the H5N1 virus, which “continues to be low,” said Vivien Dugan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as quoted by news agency AP.
The mutations, which have appeared only in the one hospitalized patient, may have occurred after the man got sick, CDC officials said. There’s no evidence that the mutated virus spread to other people, mixed with other flu viruses, or developed the ability to fight off current medicines or evade vaccines, agency officials said as quoted by AP.
Symptoms of Bird Flu in Humans
- A very high temperature or feeling hot or shivery
- Aching muscles
- Headache
- A cough or shortness of breath
Other early symptoms may include:
- Diarrhoea
- Sickness
- Stomach pain
- Chest pain
- Bleeding from the nose and gums
- Conjuctivitis
