Risk of human spread of H5N8 bird flu low: WHO

GENEVA — The risk of human-tohuman spread of the H5N8 strain of bird flu appears low after the virus was found in farmworkers in Russia, the World Health Organization says.

A separate influenza strain, H1N1, that emerged from pigs and spread rapidly worldwide among humans led the WHO to declare an influenza pandemic in 2009-10. The outbreak turned out to be mild among humans.

Russia registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus named influenza A (H5N8) being passed to humans from birds and has reported the matter to the WHO, Anna Popova, head of the consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Feb 20.

Seven people in Russia were found to be infected with H5N8, but all were asymptomatic following an outbreak on a poultry farm in the southern region of Astrakhan, a WHO statement said.

The deaths of 101,000 of the farm’s 900,000 egg-laying hens in December

had sparked the investigation, it said.

“All close contacts of these cases were clinically monitored, and no one showed signs of clinical illness. Based on currently available information, the risk of human-to-human transmission remains low.”

Screening unwarranted

The WHO advised against any special traveler screening at points of entry or restrictions on travel and or trade with Russia.

Outbreaks of the H5N8 strain were reported last year in poultry or wild birds in Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Russia, the WHO said.

Developing zoonotic influenza candidate vaccine viruses for potential use in human vaccines remains an essential part of the WHO strategy for influenza pandemic preparedness, it said.