China reports a third human case of the H3N8 strain of bird flu

A 56-year-old woman in Zhongshan, a city in the south of the country, tested positive for the virus after she was exposed to live poultry, the Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on Monday.

It said the woman had underlying illnesses but did not give further details of her condition nor confirm how she became infected. The statement said there were “no anomalies” found among her close contacts. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus being transmitted between humans so far.

“According to the experts’ studies and conclusion, the human infection [with H3N8] is a sporadic case and the risk of transmission of the virus is low at this stage,” the statement said. “The public should try to avoid contact with live birds and sick or dead birds.”

It comes nearly a year after a four-year-old boy in the central province of Henan became the first known human to be infected with H3N8.

The boy in the city of Zhumadian was found to have the virus after he fell ill with a fever and other symptoms in early April 2022, according to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.