Bird Flu Becomes ‘Urgent’ Notifiable Condition in Victoria

Medical practitioners must notify the government of any suspected or confirmed cases within 24 hours in Victoria.

Test tubes are seen labelled "Bird Flu" words in this illustration taken, June 10, 2024. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

Bird flu in humans will officially become an “urgent” notifiable condition in the Australian state of  Victoria from April 1.

The Victorian Department of Health recently issued a new advisory on the bird flu for health professionals and the local community.

Doctors and other medical professionals must now inform the government if they become aware of any bird flu cases within 24 hours.

“Pathology services must also provide written notification within five working days,” the advisory issued by Chief Health Officer Dr. Tarun Weeramanthri said.

The Victorian government highlighted that timely reporting of infectious diseases was critical to effective disease control efforts and would enable surveillance.

“Making these conditions notifiable enables public health response actions to be initiated more promptly and facilitates the collection of more comprehensive and accurate surveillance data,” the advisory said.

PCR Test for Bird Flu

Avian influenza is diagnosed via a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on nasopharyngeal and throat swabs.

The chief health officer also clarified that not everyone with symptoms of the regular flu needed to be tested for the avian influenza.

“A suspected case of avian influenza requires both clinical evidence and epidemiological evidence,” the advisory said.

This epidemiological evidence can include close contact with human bird flu cases, exposure to birds in an area with confirmed or suspected cases and eating raw or undercooked poultry products from an an area where bird flu cases exists.

Close contact with another animal infected with bird flu, such as a pig, or handling samples of avian influenza in a lab, can also be examples of epidemiological evidence.

The Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 provides the legal framework for notification on prescribed conditions and micro-organisms to the Victorian health department.

“This law exists to monitor, prevent, and control the occurrence of infectious diseases and other specified conditions to protect the Victorian community from further illness,” the government noted.

Virus Does Not Spread Easily from Birds to People

The bird flu rarely impacts people but is a highly contagious viral infection among birds, Victoria Health advised.

“Those who have had close or prolonged contact with infected birds or other animals or their contaminated environments are at highest risk of infection,” it said.

The department explained most people were not at risk of avian influenza, given the virus does not spread easily from birds to people.

“People who have close or prolonged unprotected contact with infected birds or animals or their contaminated environments are at highest risk of infection,” the department said.

“Although limited human-to-human transmission of avian influenza viruses may have occurred in some instances, sustained human-to-human transmission has not been identified to date.”

The department also noted that individuals could not catch the virus by eating fully cooked poultry or eggs, even in outbreak areas.

Victoria recorded its first ever human case of bird flu, H5N1 in early 2024, in a child who had returned from overseas. This was also the first case of human bird flu in Australia. The Department of Health confirmed the case on May 18, 2024.

Australia’s interim Centre for Disease Control (CDC) advised at the time that the child had fully recovered from the virus.

“The child has now made a full recovery and no family members in Australia or overseas have reported symptoms,” the CDC said.

Bird flu was also been found at multiple farms in Victoria in 2025, following an outbreak among birds in 2024 in Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory.

On Feb. 25, Agriculture Victoria issued an alert advising that avian influenza had been detected at four properties in Euroa, in the northeast of Victoria.

Victoria’s Acting Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Cameron Bell said, “This detection is the result of comprehensive and ongoing surveillance activities by Agriculture Victoria staff within restricted and control areas.”

In the United States, there have been 70 cases of the H5N1 bird flu including one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, there public health risk remains low with no spread between humans.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the world-first ever case of bird flu in sheep was recently discovered on a farm.

Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Infection Also Becomes Notifiable

Meanwhile, the Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection will also become a notifiable condition in Victoria from April 1.

The bacterium usually causes acute gastroenteritis following the consumption of raw and undercooked seafood.

The infection does not commonly spread between humans, but such spread is possible in cases of “poor human hygiene.”

Victoria Health said that Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection would become a routine notifiable condition, only for pathology services.

This requires pathology services to provide notification to the government of  detection of the specimen within five working days.