( MENAFN - The Conversation) The first human case of avian influenza (bird flu) in Australia was reported yesterday in Victoria . A child acquired the H5N1 strain of the virus in India and became ill upon returning home to Australia in March this year. Based on information made available yesterday on the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID ), we can ascertain the child is a two-year-old girl.
She tested positive in early March and was reportedly very unwell but has since fully recovered . According to the Victorian Department of Health , contact tracing revealed no additional cases, and the risk to others is very low. Humans who acquire H5N1 generally have close contact with infected poultry; H5N1 does not spread easily between people.
But the fatality rate in human cases is about 50% . So what should we make of this latest development, as bird flu makes news locally and around the world? There's no publicly available information on how this child became infected in India, or even where in India this case came from. However, the country is currently facing significant avian flu outbreaks in the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
H5N1 is a strain of influenza A, which is further divided into variants called clades. GISAID data shows the virus the child was infected with belongs to the H5N1 clade 2.3.
2.1a . The South Asian clade 2.
3.2.1a was first identified in 2009 and is still circulating in birds in Bangladesh and India .
This is different .
