WHO reports earlier H5N1, H9N2 cases in Bangladesh
In its monthly report on influenza at the animal-human interface, the World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed human H5N1 and H9N2 avian flu cases in Bangladesh. Both were from October.
The H5N1 patient is a 60-year-old man from Mymensing district in the north. He was hospitalized Oct 12 with a severe acute respiratory infection. He had contact with live backyard poultry before becoming ill. Nasopharyngeal and throat swabs tested positive for the virus. He has since recovered.
The H9N2 patient is a 46-year-old male poultry worker in a market in Dhaka City, which is in central Bangladesh. He handled sick poultry on Oct 26 and developed a fever, runny nose, headache, and muscle aches on Oct 27. Throat and nasal swabs tested positive for H9N2. The man has fully recovered, the WHO said.
The agency also noted in the report five H5N6 avian flu cases in Guangdong province, China, and 10 H7N9 cases in four Chinese provinces, all of which had earlier been confirmed by Chinese authorities.
The report is dated Jan 20 but was posted today.
Jan 20 WHO report
Study shows repeat introductions of H5N8 into South Korea
US and Korean researchers studying H5N8 avian flu viruses in migratory waterfowl have determined that they differ from those in isolates from poultry farms in South Korea, indicating a new introduction after the winter of 2013-14.
Writing in Emerging Infectious Diseases yesterday, the investigators characterize 11 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 viruses isolated from 9 fecal samples and 2 swab samples isolated from 980 wild bird fecal samples and 102 wild bird swabs collected in December 2014 and February 2015. They write that phylogenetic analysis showed the wild bird viruses were different from poultry samples collected after farm outbreaks caused by a novel reassortant H5N8 virus in January 2014 and into the summer of 2014.
They conclude, "HPAI (H5N8) viruses thus independently evolved in wild bird populations and poultry farms in South Korea until late 2014."
Jan 25 Emerg Infect Dis study