Russia announced on Saturday that it had identified the first cases of H5N8 avian influenza in humans, according to multiple reports.
The country’s public health chief Anna Popova said in a televised comment that seven cases had been found among workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia. Bloomberg News report. Officials have reported the matter to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Popova said the workers had mild cases and were cured. Bloomberg noted that poultry farms broke out in birds in December.
“It does not spread from one person to another. But only time will tell how future change will overcome this obstacle, “he said.” The discovery of this stress now gives us all, the whole world, the time to respond in a timely manner to possible change and to develop testing systems and vaccines. . “
“It has been notified by the Russian Federation about human infection with avian influenza H5N8 by the international health regulatory body,” the WHO said in a statement to Hill.
“Preliminary information indicates that the reported cases were workers who came in contact with flocks of birds. They were asymptomatic and no human report for human transmission. If confirmed, it would infect H5N8 people for the first time,” the statement said. . “We are in discussions with national authorities to gather more information and assess the public health impact of the event.”
Reuters notes that tensions have erupted in recent months in Europe, China, the Middle East and North Africa but only in poultry.
Updated at 2:30 p.m.
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