Australia reported its first human case of avian flu this week, in a child who had apparently been infected in India but has since fully recovered, while a different, highly contagious strain, was found on an egg farm.
Health authorities in Victoria said contact tracing had not identified any further cases but there was little chance of others becoming infected as the flu does not easily spread between people.
Reuters reports that Dr Claire Looker, the state’s chief health officer, said it was the first instance of detection in the country of the H5N1 strain in a person or animal.
The case in Victoria involves an H5N1 virus, but the strain is not the same as those responsible for outbreaks in the United States, she added.
A farm worker in Texas tested positive for the virus earlier this year as it spread through a US cattle herd.
Australia is the only continent where animals have so far stayed free of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but authorities said a different strain of highly pathogenic bird flu had been detected at an egg farm near Melbourne.
First laboratory tests showed the virus was an as yet unidentified H7 strain that probably came from the wild bird population and had been seen in Australia before, said Graeme Cooke, Victoria’s chief veterinary officer.
Curbs were imposed on movement around the farm and the birds would be destroyed, he added, but the outbreak presented no risk to human health.
In 2020, Victoria was the site of an H7N7 outbreak, the most recent of Australia’s nine outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) since 1976. All were quickly reined in and stamped out.
Reuters article – Australia reports first human avian flu infection (Open access)
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