Two more H7N9 avian influenza infections were reported from China, both of them involving men from Hubei province in the central part of the country, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said today in a statement.
The men, ages 40 and 55, are hospitalized in critical condition in Wuhan.
Portugal yesterday reported its first highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza detection, in a grey heron found dead near the southern city of Faro, according to a notice yesterday from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In several countries in Europe and other regions that have had H5N8 outbreaks, the virus was first found in wild birds before jumping to poultry.
Finland, Poland, and the UK also report new H5N8 avian flu outbreaks.
France reports three low-path strains that struck poultry last year, Greece detects H5N5 for the first time, and Germany detects high-path H5N2.
Signaling an ongoing rise in H7N9 avian flu activity in China, the country's Liaoning province in the northeast today reported two cases, according to a local health department statement translated and posted today by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
Detections vary from H5N1 in India to the confirmation of H5N5 for the first time in Slovenia.
On the eve of Lunar New Year in China, ringing in the year of the rooster, two of the country's provinces reported new H7N9 avian flu cases, Hunan and Guizhou, according to provincial health department statements translated and posted by FluTrackers, an infectious disease news message board.
New H5N8 outbreaks, which have affected at least 24 European countries, plus some in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, were reported in Germany, Italy, Poland, and the UK.
With H7N9 cases in China in January already outpacing December's sudden and steep rise, China reported at least two more cases today, according to the latest official reports.
Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) today acknowledged two cases reported from Hubei province yesterday, a 65 year-old man and a 78 year-old woman from two different cities, both in critical condition.
The UK reported H5N8 avian flu on a pheasant farm housing 10,000 birds.
