A woman in southern China tested positive for H3N8 bird flu, local officials say, and although an earlier strain may have been responsible for the 1889 pandemic, the virus has never been found in humans. This is only the third time.
A 56-year-old woman from Zhongshan city was infected with H3N8, the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a brief statement released on Monday.
The woman with multiple myeloma and other underlying medical conditions had contact with live poultry before she became ill, the statement said. Wild birds are often seen near her house.
Details about her condition have not been made public.
“So far, no abnormalities have been found in close contacts,” the Guangdong CDC said. ”
The news came when a 4-year-old boy in central China became seriously ill, almost a year after the H3N8 virus was first identified in humans. His family’s pets, a dog and a cat, were also infected.
The second, a 5-year-old boy from Hunan, was infected about a month later in May 2022. According to the Chinese government, he had only mild symptoms and quickly recovered.
H3N8 is found in horses as well as birds and is one of two viruses that cause canine flu. The new case in China is his third confirmed case in humans and the first in an adult.
But although it wasn’t discovered in humans until 2022, researchers believe an earlier strain of the virus may have caused the 1889 pandemic known as the ‘Asian flu’ or ‘Russian flu’. More recent research suggests that a strain of coronavirus may have caused the pandemic.
