A Chinese woman has died from H3N8 bird flu—the world’s first case of human death from a type of bird flu that, to date, has been exceedingly rare in humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the development in an April 11 statement.
On March 27, the National Health Commission of China’s communist regime notified the WHO of a confirmed case of human infection with the H3N8 avian influenza virus. The patient was a 56-year-old female from Guangdong Province. She became ill on Feb. 22, was hospitalized for severe pneumonia on March 3, and died on March 16, according to the WHO announcement.
However, the Chinese authorities didn’t disclose the death to the public at that time.
Cooked ducks and chickens are pictured on sale at a market stall in Beijing on Jan. 30, 2004. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
According to a March 26 notice on the official website of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a case of H3N8 was reported in a 56-year-old woman with multiple myeloma and other underlying medical conditions in Zhongshan city. The report also stated that the case was an unusual one and that the risk of transmission of the virus was low.
However, the notification didn’t disclose that the patient had already died.
Before the onset of the disease, the woman had apparently been to a wet market and had contact with live poultry, and there were wild birds near her residence. The source of the patient’s infection hasn’t yet been determined, and her close contacts have neither been infected nor developed symptoms, according to the Guangdong CDC’s report.
Possible Origin of ‘Next Pandemic’
On March 29, Chinese media outlet 21 Finance and Economics reported that research conducted by Chinese and Australian scientists analyzed more than 70,000 animal influenza records from the past 50 years (1970–2016). The research results indicated that “the next pandemic to sweep the world may be caused by a new strain of influenza virus concocted in animals to which humans have little immunity.”
The report cited a study published in the journal One Health, in collaboration with Fudan University and the University of Sydney, that concluded that bird flu could be the source of a future pandemic.
A nurse prepares medicine for a bird flu patient in a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 12, 2017. STR/AFP/Getty Images
According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information, avian influenza is a highly contagious disease caused by the avian influenza A virus and affects both domestic poultry and wildfowl. There are many subtypes of avian influenza, and close human contact with living and dead domestic and wild birds increases the possibility of avian influenza becoming a zoonotic disease—one that can be passed on to humans.
The 56-year-old female from Guangdong is the third case of human H3N8 infection reported in mainland China. The Chinese regime reported one case in April 2022, and another in May 2022. One was in critical condition, while the other had mild symptoms. Both cases may have resulted from direct or indirect contact with infected poultry.
The Chinese communist regime’s National Health Commission reported on April 26, 2022, that a 4-year-old boy in Henan Province had been infected with the H3N8 bird flu virus, in what was the world’s first case of H3N8 avian-human infection. Chinese officials said at the time that the boy became infected with the virus through contact with poultry.
Xiao Lusheng contributed to this report.
Alex Wu
Author
Alex Wu is a U.S.-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Chinese society, Chinese culture, human rights, and international relations.
