Girl, 2, with H5N1 bird flu in Australia had travelled to Kolkata, India: WHO
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No close family contacts in Australia or India developed symptoms, as of May 22.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY - The World Health Organisation (WHO) on June 7 said the child with H5N1 bird flu reported by Australia in May
The WHO said on June 7 that the child, Australia’s first case of H5N1 in a person, had travelled to Kolkata from Feb 12 to Feb 19 and returned to Australia on March 1.
The child was hospitalised on March 2 and remained there for more than two weeks. No close family contacts in Australia or India developed symptoms, as of May 22, the WHO said.
The WHO said genetic sequencing showed the virus was subtype H5N1 and part of a strain that circulates in South-east Asia and has been detected in previous human infections and in poultry.
Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security, said while it would be difficult to do months after the fact, an investigation is needed to see if the child was in contact with poultry or other birds, or if there was an outbreak of this version of H5N1 nearby.
“H5N1 viruses do not transmit efficiently between humans and I suspect there’s an occult animal exposure that led to the infection,” Dr Adalja said. REUTERS
