A woman died in China after contracting a rare bird flu strain (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A 33-year-old woman has died three weeks after catching a rare form of bird flu in China.
The Chinese woman contracted the H5N6 strain in the city of Bazhong, Sichuan, shortly after visiting a local poultry market, according to local reports.
She was admitted to hospital on October 22 and died from the illness on November 14.
Her death has only just been reported this week.
This particular strain has infected a large number of people in China in recent years, which has raised concern among some experts.
Between 2014 and December 16 this year, 88 human cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) have been reported worldwide.
Of those, 87 were in mainland China, according to a report released on Tuesday by Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection.
The woman contracted the virus after visiting a poultry market in Bazhong City, Sichuan (Picture: Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
‘Sporadic human cases are not unexpected,’ a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said.
‘The rise in the number of reported human cases of an H5N6 infection may reflect the continued circulation of the virus in birds, and enhanced surveillance system and diagnostic capacity as a direct outcome of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.’
According to the WHO, there is a 39% mortality rate for H5N6 – a figure that has been steadily rising since the onset of the Covid pandemic.
In the past four years, the strain has only been detected in Asia, the WOAH database showed, with the latest outbreak on a poultry farm in the Philippines in January.
There have been 88 case of H5N6 recorded since 2014 – 87 of which were in China (Picture: Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The NHS said that while H5N6 does not infect people easily or spread from human to human, ‘several people have been infected around the world, leading to a number of deaths’.
It says bird flu is spread by close contact with an infected bird, dead or alive, which includes touching infected birds, droppings or bedding, or killing or preparing infected poultry for cooking.
NHS advice says: ‘Markets where live birds are sold can also be a source of bird flu. Avoid visiting these markets if you’re travelling to countries that have had an outbreak of bird flu.’
The main symptoms of bird flu can appear ‘very quickly’, according to the NHS and include:
a very high temperature or feeling hot or shivery
aching muscles
headache
a cough or shortness of breath
Other early symptoms may also include:
diarrhoea
sickness
stomach pain
chest pain
bleeding from the nose and gums
conjunctivitis
Bird flu has been found in the UK this year with two testing positive for the virus back in July, but the H5N6 has so far been contained to Asian countries.
Experts previously said that a human bird flu pandemic in the UK is ‘unlikely but not impossible’.
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She contracted the virus after visiting a poultry market.