What is known about the H5N8 virus which started with seven rural workers and Chinese scientists believe it will be the “next pandemic”

George fu gao Yes Weifeng Shi, two Chinese scientists, have warned that after the current pandemic, there could be another one linked to avian influenza H5N8. This analysis takes place after the contagion of 7 farm workers in Russia. The experts published an article in the magazine Science and argued their prognosis, which is taken with great care given that both participated in the identification of the new coronavirus in December 2019.

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Fu Gao is the general manager of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Shi is the head of the Reference Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Shandong Universities. They both insist that bird flu viruses can cause “disastrous pandemics” in humans. “Their global spread is a public health problem,” they noted.

Although the pathogen in question has been circulating in Europe since 2014 and the outbreaks have affected millions of birds, the alert was raised on February 21 of this year, when the disease surged and affected humans. Seven workers at a farm in the Russian city of Astrakhan, home to more than 900,000 chickens, were infected with H5N8 bird flu. Beyond the fact that people had no symptoms, specialists indicated in their study that the virus has “disturbing” mutations.

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“It is imperative that the global spread is not ignored and the potential risk of H5N8 avian influenza viruses to poultry, wild birds and global public health, ”they said.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has also confirmed an outbreak of this trap in a flock of wild birds in the wetlands of Nagqu Nature Reserve in Tibet.

The same thing happened in this organism but in Spain, where the disease was detected in the remains of a goose in the Laguna Grande de Villafáfila, in Zamora. At that point, a reassuring message was sent to the public: “The detection of this case does not imply a risk to public health since genetic studies based on the analysis of complete viral sequences show that it is an avian virus without specific affinity for humans ”.

The virus was also found in three storks and in a wild goose in the Aiguamolls del Empordà Natural Park, in Castelló d’Empúries located in Girona and there the specialists were in the same line, expressing that there was no risk for the man. In total, 46 countries Europe, Asia and Africa reported fatal outbreaks of H5N8 in birds.

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This variant has caused the slaughter of more than 20 million poultry in South Korea and Japan. On the other hand, in November 2020, more than 10,000 turkeys were killed on a farm in England to prevent the spread of the virus.

In this scenario, experts recommend monitoring industrial farms and increase security measures to avoid contagion in humans. They also advise replacing large industrial farms with small family farms.

What is bird flu?

Bird flu is an infection caused by strains of the influenza virus. These can attack birds, but also infect humans. Symptoms, although they can vary, are fever, cough, sore throat, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, neurological changes, or severe respiratory illness.

“There is a very wide variety of influenza viruses that circulate among birds far more than among the main mammalian influenza hosts, humans, pigs and horses, ”said Dr. John W. McCauley of the Francis Crick Institute.

How is it transmitted to humans?

In general, it is for “a very close contact ”with animals infected poultry or ducks, “direct exposure when handled or when their meat is being prepared,” McCauley said.

“The closure of poultry markets put an end to the H5N1 avian influenza epidemic in Hong Kong in 1997,” he recalled, adding that “once cooked, infected meat represents very little threat.”

WHO considers that while avian influenza viruses circulate in poultry, sporadic cases in humans “they are not surprising ”.

The next phase would be transmission between humans, but, for that, “mutations are necessary,” he told the news agency. AFP Vincent Enouf, Deputy Director of the National Reference Center for Respiratory Infection Viruses, at the Institut Pasteur in France.

Another bird flu: the first human case of H10N3

At the beginning of the month, Chinese authorities warned of the world’s first human infection with H10N3 bird flu, although they said the case still did not raise concern.

“The patient is a 41-year-old man from Jiangsu Province,” said the World Health Organization (WHO). The man developed signs of H10N3 avian influenza “on April 22 and was hospitalized on April 28 in an intensive care unit. He is currently recovering,” the WHO said. the doctors concluded that he had the disease one month after his hospitalization. “For the moment, the source of the exposure of this patient to the virus H10N3 is unknown,” they assured.

“For the time being, there is no indication of possible human-to-human transmission“H10N3,” said the WHO.

In addition, in birds, where it has been detected since 2002, “H10N3 is a low pathogenic virus”, that is to say that it causes few signs of the disease, according to the WHO. The fact that it belongs to the H10 family is “good news”, believes Dr Nicole Robb, who points out that the H5 or H7 are “more worrying”.