The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in China has announced the outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 bird flu a city in China’s Hunan province.
This is coming after World Health Organization declared Coronavirus as global health emergency since its first outbreak in the Wuhan province of China.
As of 1 February 2020, a total of 13,994 cases of 2019-nCoV coronavius have been confirmed in 27 countries and 304 people confirmed dead in China.
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According to a statement by the ministry on its website on Saturday, it is unsure when the outbreak occurred but it broke out on a farm in the city of Shaoyang in the Hunan province, China.
The city culled almost 18,000 poultry after the outbreak and of the 7,850 chickens on the farm, 4,500 died of the H5N1 avian flu, Business Insider reported.
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It is revealed that Hunan is next to Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak that has spread to over 10 countries and killed over 170 people in China.
According to a statement on the website of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the bird flu is deemed “high pathogenic” based on its ability to kill birds.
The USGS website says;
The designation of low or highly pathogenic avian influenza refers to the potential for these viruses to kill chickens. The designation of low pathogenic or highly pathogenic does not refer to how infectious the viruses may be to humans, other mammals, or other species of birds.
The USGS noted, however, that most strains of the bird flu are not highly pathogenic and cause few signs of disease in infected wild birds.
According to the World Health Organization(WHO), while H5N1 can be transmitted to humans, typically through contact with dead birds or a contaminated environment, it is rare in humans.
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World Health Organization added;
The virus does not infect humans easily, and spread from person to person appears to be unusual. There is no evidence that the disease can be spread to people through properly prepared and thoroughly cooked food. The mortality rate in humans is 60%.
Since 2003, the H5N1 avian flu has killed 455 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
