Weeks after reporting the first case of a human getting infected by the H5N8 strain of bird flu, Russian authorities has warned that the virus carries a high risk of mutating to transmit among humans.
“There’s a fairly high degree of probability” of human-to-human transmission forecasts,” Anna Popova, who heads Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, told the state-run TASS news agency. “This is likely to happen. Colleagues say that the mutation is continuing very actively,” Popova said.
In February, Russia alerted the World Health Organisation after detecting the first case of a transmission of the H5N8 strain to humans at a poultry farm, where seven farm workers tested positive. WHO noted that all the seven cases with PCR-positive results were clinically asymptomatic
Popova said that Rospotrebnadzor and the Siberia-based Vektor state research laboratory spotted the transmission before disaster could strike. “We have time to prepare: make a test system, make a vaccine and observe the situation. It will not be needed - this will be a lucky break. But if need be, we'll be ready,” she said.
The ongoing H5N8 outbreak has spread across several countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kazakhstan, swathes of Europe including the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, Japan, South Korea and China and India. Lakhs of birds have been culled across the world in response.
