H5N1 spreads worldwide: Avian flu virus discovered in dead Chinese woman

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been worrying experts for some time.

H5N1 spreads worldwide: Avian flu virus discovered in dead Chinese woman

The H5N1 bird flu virus has been worrying experts for some time. Recently, more and more outbreaks of the pathogen among birds have been reported. But even humans don't seem to be completely safe. In China, a woman dies from the dreaded variant.

The recent death of a girl in Cambodia is probably not related to the group of bird flu viruses currently circulating worldwide. But another case in China: The H5N1 virus of group 2.3.4.4b was found in a Chinese woman who died in October, said the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) near Greifswald. This group is currently rampant in many other areas of the world from Europe to South America.

According to the FLI, the Chinese woman was 38 years old at the time of her death and lived in the south of the country. She had had contact with infected poultry and developed severe pneumonia. The woman was treated in hospital and died. She is said to have been ill.

An 11-year-old girl died of bird flu in Cambodia last week. In this case, another virus group (2.3.2.1c) was detected, as the FLI announced. These have been circulating in Cambodia for a few years. According to official information, it was the first death related to the disease in the Southeast Asian country since 2014.

Fears about a larger transmission from person to person were initially not confirmed in the case. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) over the weekend, the girl's father had also tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, but not eleven other contacts of the girl, some of whom had flu symptoms. The father showed no signs of illness. "From what is known so far, the virus does not easily infect humans and human-to-human transmission appears to be uncommon," it said.

The largest outbreak of avian influenza ever documented is currently raging across several continents. Avian influenza, also known as avian influenza, is an infectious disease that mainly affects waterfowl and other birds. Experts fear that the virus is adapting more and more to mammals and could therefore also become more dangerous to humans. Infections had also been detected in mammals such as sea lions, raccoons, foxes, bears and martens in recent months. Experts are particularly worried about an outbreak of bird flu on a Spanish mink farm.