Russia announced on Saturday that it has identified the first cases of H5N8 bird flu in humans, according to several reports.
Anna Popova, the country’s head of public health, said in televised comments that seven cases were detected in workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia. Bloomberg News reported. Authorities have provided information on the cases to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Popova said workers had mild cases and were recovering. Bloomberg noted that the poultry farm was the site of a bird outbreak in December.
“It is not transmitted from person to person. But only time will tell how far future mutations will allow it to overcome this barrier, “he said, according to the media.” The discovery of this strain now gives us all, all over the world, time to prepare. us for possible mutations and the possibility of reacting in a timely manner and developing test and vaccine systems “.
In a statement to The Hill, the WHO said that “the Russian Federation has notified human infection with H5N8 bird flu through mechanisms of international health regulation.”
“Preliminary information indicates that the reported cases were workers exposed to flocks of birds. They were asymptomatic and no human-to-human transmission was reported. If confirmed, this would be the first time H5N8 infects people.” states the statement. “We are in discussions with national authorities to gather more information and assess the impact of this event on public health.”
Reuters noted that in recent months there have been outbreaks of the strain in Europe, China, the Middle East and North Africa, but only in poultry.
Updated at 2:30 p.m.