Seven workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia were the first humans to catch the H5N8 strain of bird flu in humans.
Russia told the World Health Organization that the virus has not yet spread among people, Anna Popova, the country’s head of public health, said on Saturday, according to Bloomberg. All farm workers had asymptomatic cases and recovered, he said.
The strain was first reported in November, which was found in 15 Russian regions, both among birds and wild birds. At first it was not considered dangerous to humans.
“It’s not transmitted from person to person,” Popova said. “But only time will tell how far future mutations will allow it to overcome that barrier.” The world has a chance to prepare for possible mutations and to respond in a timely manner to develop tests and vaccines for the strain, he said.
The Siberian Vector Institute said Saturday it would begin developing human tests and a vaccine against H5N8, the RIA news agency reported.
The WHO acknowledged that it had received the information from Russia. “We are in a discussion with national authorities to gather more information and assess the impact of this event on public health,” the organization said in an email to Reuters.
H5N8 has also been found in France, where hundreds of thousands of birds were slaughtered last month to prevent spread. It also stood behind the worst bird flu outbreak in Japan in late 2020 and has been found in China, the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, but so far only in poultry .