Guangdong province reports China's newest H7N9 case
A new case of H7N9 avian influenza has been reported in China, according to postings today on FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
The case-patient is a 71-year-old man from Meizhou Xingning in Guangdong province. His case was diagnosed yesterday, say the postings, and he is reportedly receiving treatment and in stable condition.
The overall case total now stands at 437, with at least 156 deaths, says FluTrackers. The case total includes 301 in the current, second wave of the outbreak, compared with 136 in the first wave last spring.
May 14 FluTrackers H7N9 thread
Most recent (May 9) previous CIDRAP News scan on H7N9
Guangzhou study finds range of H7N9 symptoms
A study of 21 cases of H7N9 avian flu in Guangzhou—the southern China port city near Hong Kong—revealed a spectrum of clinical presentations and a 2-person family cluster, according to a report today in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Researchers from the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Hong Kong analyzed data from all patients confirmed as having H7N9 flu in the city of 13 million people from Apr 1, 2013, to Mar 7, 2014. All told, 16 patients were identified through pneumonia surveillance, 3 from throat swabs, 1 from testing of poultry workers, and 1 through contact tracing.
Of the 21 cases, 16 were classified as severe, 4 as mild, and 1 (the poultry worker) was asymptomatic. All 4 mild cases were in children ranging from 4 to 17 years old, whereas ages ranged from 29 to 83 in the severe cases, with a median of 66.
Sixteen of the patients had direct or indirect contact with poultry, while poultry-contact information was unknown for the rest. Twelve had underlying medical conditions.
The father in the case cluster worked in a live-poultry market. His 5-year-old daughter, the patient discovered through contact tracing, had close, unprotected contact with him while he had a severe cough and heavy sputum. She had no known poultry exposure in the 12 days before she became ill, so the authors said the cluster suggests human-to-human transmission, which has been reported multiple times in China.
The authors conclude, "Our results show that targeted surveillance during a period of elevated disease activity improved identification of mild or asymptomatic infections."
May 14 Emerg Infect Dis study