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NEW DELHI, July 21 (Reuters) – An 11-year-old boy has died in India from an avian influenza virus of the H5N1 strain, the first such death in the country, highlighting a potential new risk to the The world’s second most populous nation battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The boy was admitted to India’s First Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on July 2 and died of multiple organ failure on Tuesday, according to a government statement.
Health workers treating the patient and the boy’s family have been kept in isolation and authorities have started contact tracing, the statement said.
In Haryana, the boy’s home state in northern India, the Livestock Department has found no suspected cases of bird flu and has stepped up surveillance, he said.
India has experienced more than half a dozen bird flu outbreaks in poultry over the past two decades, all of which have been brought under control with no human cases reported in the country before.
Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Sandra Maler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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