China has detected the first human case of the dangerous new variant of the H3N8 bird flu. The infected is a 4-year-old boy from Henan province who, according to Chinese health authorities, was in contact with farm animals. Until now, this specific strain had been detected in birds, horses and pigs, but never in people, unlike other strains of the disease, which are common in humans.
This contagion comes when the country tries by all means to prevent the coronavirus from continuing to spread, decreeing massive and ultra-strict confinements such as the one in Shanghai, where those who are positive are isolated by force and against their will; and in precarious conditions on many occasions, with hardly any food. In this sense, images have come to appear of how technicians they welded the houses of the infected with doors to prevent them from going abroad before the end of the quarantine.
Thus, the National Health Commission of China announced on Wednesday that the little boy was infected with the H3N8 strain of bird flu, the first contagion of this type registered among humans worldwide.
Contact with free-range chickens
As reported by the Commission in a statement, the child was infected in the city of Zhumadian, in the central province of Henan. He developed a fever and other flu-like symptoms on April 5 and was subsequently hospitalized.
On April 24, the commission confirmed that he had contracted the H3N8 strain after having been in contact with chickens that he raised at home.
“This virus has been detected in horses, dogs and birds around the world, but never before has a case been recorded in a human. This is something exceptional and the risk of contagion is low,” the institution added.
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