Deadly Bird Flu Back as Woman Dies in Guangdong

By Matthew Bossons, January 7, 2016

On December 30, a 26-year-old Shenzhen woman died after succumbing to the H5N6 avian flu, according to health authorities. She was the first of two people to be infected in Guangdong province in a single week.

An expert with the Shenzhen Municipal Disease Control and Prevention Center, citing gene analysis, stated the woman contracted her infection from contact with live poultry or an associated environment, according to Xinhua.

On Monday, health authorities announced that a 40-year-old woman from Zhaoqing city, Guangdong, was also battling the same strain of avian flu. The woman is reportedly in serious condition and obtaining in-hospital treatment, according to an official of the Zhaoqing Municipal Health and Family Planning Bureau.

A Zhaoqing market has had the live fowl trade barred for one week and health workers in the city are monitoring 64 people who had contact with the infected woman. Authorities also have five poultry market workers under observation, according to the Xinhua report.

The World Health Organization’s website published a (reasonably) detailed rundown of the Chinese government’s response to the infections:

making every effort to treat the patient; collecting and testing the specimens of the patient, carrying out viral isolation and whole genome sequencing and comparison;
conducting epidemiological investigation; tracing, managing and observing the close contacts of the patient;
strengthening surveillance of unexplained pneumonia and routine sentinel surveillance of influenza; strengthening the etiological surveillance of influenza/avian influenza virus.

Experts are encouraging people to avoid contact with live poultry to reduce the chances of becoming infected.

The first human case of H5N6 was recorded in southwest China's Sichuan province in May 2014. So far, six human cases of the flu have been reported in total, all in the PRC, although the virus has been identified in fowl in China, Laos and Vietnam, according to the CBC.

[Cover image via Tabasco Hoy]