Amid an ongoing epidemic of coronavirus, China has discovered another flu outbreak near Wuhan. Reportedly, officials have announced the bird flu epidemic on Saturday in Hunan, which boundaries the province of Hubei. Health executives have noted that the pandemic triggered by a farm in Shaoyang City’s Shuangqing district. Notably, the farm has had more than 7,800 chickens, and more than half of the chickens have died due to the infection. The H5N1 strain has emerged while China battles to control the spread of the latest strain of coronavirus. So far, the mysterious illness has killed over 300 people in China.
Citing bird flu infection officials have recalled over 17,000 hens and demolished eggs after the announcement of the outbreak. Through the latest effort, they aim to limit the spread of the H5N1 virus. According to the WHO, H5N1, or bird flu, is a highly contagious virus that results in severe respiratory illness in birds. The flu can often transmit to humans, yet no adverse cases have been reported. On Saturday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) of China also announced the affected poultry. As per the statement, China’s Animal Epidemic Prevention and Control Center has had notified regarding the epidemic to the MOA. After that, the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the strain as H5N1.
According to the WHO, bird flu can rarely extend to humans, but transmission between individuals remain doubtful. Most of the time, the people infected with the H5N1 virus have close interaction with affected birds or contaminated regions. Still, there remain broader uncertainties that the virus which has a higher lethal rate could transform in a way that would make person-to-person transmission easier. In the end, the H5N1 bird flu pandemic arrives while China is still trying to figure out how to cover the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The epidemic started at the end of December 2019, is a highly infectious disease. Nations, including Japan, Thailand, France, the US, Vietnam, Taiwan, have reported person-to-person transmission of the virus. Even more, the WHO has declared the coronavirus epidemic as a global health emergency, stimulating instant response worldwide to curb the infection.
