H7N9 human transmission possible but 'highly sporadic', says health expert
Long-term and unprotected exposure to the infected person might result in another human infection, said Feng Zijian, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) health emergency centre.
China’s top health authority is not ruling out the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the new H7N9 bird flu virus strain.
Although the virus does not easily infect humans, the chance of human-to-human transmission is “theoretically possible” , although “highly sporadic”, explained Feng Zijian, director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) health emergency centre.
“Long-term and unprotected exposure to the infected person might result in another human infection,” he said. Feng added that the small amount of family clusters did not necessarily mean the virus had mutated into a human influenza virus capable of spreading person to person
The elder son of an 87-year-old man who died of the virus on March 4, one of China’s earliest cases, has recovered from the virus, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said.
The dead man’s younger son also died on the same day as his father. Details of his death however, were not available. The CDC said they were currently investigating whether the family cluster involved human-to-human transmission.
At least two family cluster cases have been found in Shanghai, which involved a father and son, and a husband and wife.
As of Thursday, 11 new H7N9 infections have been reported, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 82.