The risk to the general public remains low, authorities said, after someone was infected with bird flu while in close contact with birds.
ADVERTISEMENTA person in the United Kingdom has been infected with avian influenza, in what health authorities described as a “rare” case of transmission from birds to people.
Notably, the patient was infected with the DI.2 genotype, which is currently circulating in birds in the UK.
It is different from the strain of bird flu that jumped from animals to people in the United States last year, worrying health experts.
The patient was infected after “close and prolonged contact with a large number of infected birds” on a farm in the West Midlands, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
It does not appear that the patient spread the bird flu to anyone else, and the risk to the general public remains low, the agency said.
“While avian influenza is highly contagious in birds, this is a very rare event and is very specific to the circumstances on this premises,” Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said in a statement.
Fears over bird flu threat
The bird flu has health experts on edge because cases have been elevated in wild birds worldwide.
There are concerns that the virus could jump from birds to humans, become transmissible among people, and cause a pandemic.
That possibility is “one of the most feared infectious disease threats we face,” said Andrew Preston, who researches pathogens at the University of Bath.
It is of particular concern in the US, where a bird flu outbreak among poultry and dairy cows has led to 67 confirmed human cases and one death.
Notably, no person-to-person spread has been detected in the US.
For the virus to spread between people, it would need to undergo genetic mutations that have also not been detected in the UK.
Even so, the UK government said last month that it was stockpiling five million bird flu vaccines for humans because the pathogen has pandemic potential.
Over the weekend, it extended biosecurity requirements for bird keepers to the entirety of England.
“There is always the risk that the virus can evolve and become better adapted to spread amongst humans,” said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
ADVERTISEMENT“It’s important to be vigilant, to ensure good wild fowl and poultry surveillance, and when human cases do occur, to isolate the patient to remove the risk of onward transmission,” Ball said.
