Reading the headline, we’re all thinking the same thing. A sentence that mentions China and the world’s first case of a potentially deadly virus is enough to set the alarm bells ringing, courtesy of the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic that originated in the China city of Wuhan over a year and a half ago.
The virus in question this time is the H10N3, an uncommon strain of avian flu that is typically only found in wild birds and waterfowl in Asia. And the person in question who is suffering from this disease is a 41-year-old man in the Eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. This report comes from China’s National Health Commission (NHC), which also stated that “The risk of large-scale spread is extremely low,”. The man is a resident of the city of Zhenjiang and was hospitalized on April 18th. He was diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28th and reports say that he is in stable condition and ready to be discharged this week.
The health commission stated that investigation of close contacts has not revealed any other infections and there are no other infections of this strain reported globally either. There are many different strains of bird flu present in China and sometimes cases are reported of people getting infected as well, usually those working with poultry. However, this is the first time a case of the rare H10N3 strain has been reported.
H10N3 is low pathogenic and is highly unlikely to cause a large-scale outbreak, according to the NHC. As much as everyone wants to believe that, China’s mishandling and dismissal of the threats posed by coronavirus at the start of the pandemic have created a lot of mistrust for China in the minds of people around the world, and it is only natural to be a bit suspicious of what could happen, even if this virus turns out to be harmless.
Stay tuned for more on this potentially alarming development.