Officials confirmed the existence of bird flu in a patient. It is believed that it was H5N1 (potentially fatal) variant. The UK’s first case is of bird flu. It has a death rate of about 60%.
The UK Health Security Agency’s chief scientist officer, Professor Isabel Oliver said that the BBC had received a report of a bird flu case in South West England.
“While the risk of avian flu to the general public is very low, we know that some strains do have the potential to spread to humans and that’s why we have robust systems in place to detect these early and take action,”Oliver declared.
According to the health security chief, officials have not discovered any evidence of the virus spreading from the victim’s contacts.
“Currently there is no evidence that this strain detected in the UK can spread from person to person, but we know that viruses evolve all the time and we continue to monitor the situation closely,” she noted.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), officials said the victim of the virus was in the UK. “very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, which they kept in and around their home over a prolonged period of time.”
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The individual may have been infected by the H5N1 variant that has been causing numerous bird population outbreaks in recent months. It’s not known if this is the case. BBC claims that 1 million birds were killed in Lincolnshire over the past month to control the epidemic.
Birds are infected with H5N1. This is a severe, highly contagious respiratory illness. While it is rare to infect humans, about 60% of cases do occur.
The British case has been reported to the World Health Organization.
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