Chinese scientists believe new cases of H7N9 bird flu in East China may indicate the risk of a fresh outbreak of the virus during winter.
Published in the journal Eurosurveillance on Oct. 24, the new paper looks at the severe case of a healthy 35-year-old man from Zhejiang Province, who had no obvious recent contact with live poultry.
Typical cases confirmed by labs are in people over 60 years old, who have recently been exposed to poultry at live bird markets.
To date, H7N9 has killed about 45 people among approximately 135 Chinese infected with the virus, but that outbreak died out last summer.
As well as the main study case, another severe case was identified on Oct. 23–a man in his 60s in Zhejiang Province who transported and sold poultry.
“It is important to monitor the pandemic potential of this re-emerging virus which has apparently continued to circulate in an animal reservoir during the summer,” the researchers concluded, adding that increased surveillance in human and animal populations will help prevent severe cases and deaths.
“In particular, enhanced surveillance in poultry would be helpful if it can identify the H7N9 virus and inform early control measures before human infections occur,” they added.
