Over the past 3 days China reported one new H7N9 infection, which killed a man from Guangdong province, along with three other fatalities that involved previously reported illnesses.
Many of the patients sickened by H7N9 have severe pneumonia and can spend weeks in intensive care units. Though cases in the second wave of H7N9 appear to be tapering off, outcomes are often delayed due to the long hospitalizations.
The newest confirmed case involves a 59-year-old man with chronic bronchitis whose illness was confirmed on Mar 2, according to a Guangdong health department statement translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board. He died the same day from multiple organ failure.
Also today, Guangdong health officials reported two other deaths, both in patients whose H7N9 infections were confirmed earlier. One involved a patient whose illness was confirmed on Feb 21. He died on Feb 26. The other was in an individual whose case was confirmed on Feb 1 and who died on Feb 27.
The other death occurred in a 60-year-old man from Anhui province, according to a report yesterday from Xinhua, China's state news agency. The man died on Feb 28 in a Wuhu hospital, where he had been treated for an H7N9 infection that was confirmed on Feb 19.
The newly confirmed infection edges the total number of H7N9 outbreak cases to 380, and the four new fatalities lift the unofficial number of deaths to 118. So far 244 infections have been reported in the outbreak's second wave, which began in October, compared with 136 in the first wave last spring.
WHO confirms 8 cases
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) today filled in more details on eight H7N9 case reports that it received from China on Feb 27, Feb 28, and Mar 1.
Patient ages range from 2 to 77 years, and three are children. Three are from Zhejiang province, two are from Hunan province, and Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Guangxi province each reported one case.
The three children—ages 2, 6, and 7—are girls from Jinhua city in Zhejiang province. All three have a history of exposure to live poultry. The 2-year-old girl got sick first, on Feb 23, and was hospitalized 2 days later with a mild infection.
The other two girls both got sick on Feb 26 and are hospitalized in severe condition, the WHO said, which is somewhat unusual. When compared with adults, children sickened by H7N9 have been more likely to have milder infections.
Of the five adult patients, all but one had been exposed to live poultry. Three of them are in critical condition, and two are reported to be in severe condition.
Among all eight patients, illness onsets range from Feb 15 through Feb 26.
See also:
Mar 3 FluTrackers thread
Mar 2 Xinhua story
FluTrackers human H7N9 case list
Mar 3 WHO statement
