China reports first human case of bird flu case

China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country's eastern Jiangsu province, China's National Health Commission said on Tuesday. In a statement on its website, the NHC has confirmed the case of human infection with the H10N3 strain. The risk of spreading on a large scale was very low, the NHC assured, adding that there hasn’t been any case of human infection of H10N3 reported in the world before. There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a genome sequence on a blood sample from the patient last week and confirmed that it was the H10N3 strain. Local authorities have traced the patient’s contacts and have kept them under medical observation. The patient, a 41-year-old man from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the state-run CGTN TV reported. Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low.