Russia said on Saturday that its scientists had detected the world’s first case of transmission of the H5N8 strain of bird flu from birds to humans and had alerted the World Health Organization.
In televised statements, Anna Popova, head of Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said scientists at the Vektor laboratory had isolated genetic material from the strain of seven workers on a poultry farm in southern Russia, where it was recorded. an outbreak among the birds in December.
The workers did not suffer any serious health consequences, he added. They are believed to have caught the poultry virus on the farm.
“Information on the world’s first case of bird flu (H5N8) transmission to humans has already been sent to the World Health Organization,” Popova said.
There are different subtypes of bird flu virus.
Although the highly contagious strain H5N8 is lethal to birds, it has never been reported to have spread to humans.
Popova praised “the important scientific discovery,” and said “time will tell” if the virus can mutate even further.
“The discovery of these mutations when the virus has not yet acquired the ability to transmit from humans to humans gives us all, around the world, time to prepare for possible mutations and react appropriately and timely.” , said Popova.
The WHO confirmed on Saturday that Russia had been notified of the development.
“We are in discussions with national authorities to gather more information and assess the impact of this event on public health,” a spokesman said.
“If confirmed, this would be the first time H5N8 has infected people.”
The WHO stressed that Russian workers were “asymptomatic” and that no human-to-human transmission had been reported.
People can be infected with avian and swine flu viruses, such as avian influenza A (H5N1) and A (H7N9) subtypes and swine flu subtypes such as A (H1N1).
According to the WHO, people are usually infected by direct contact with contaminated animals or environments, and there is no sustained transmission between humans.
H5N1 in people can cause serious illness and has a mortality rate of 60%.
‘Tip of the iceberg’
Gwenael Vourc’h, head of research at France’s National Institute of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, said flu viruses are known to be evolving “fairly quickly” and that there could have been other cases in part of those reported in Russia.
“This is probably the tip of the iceberg,” he told AFP.
Francois Renaud, a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), said, however, that he is “not particularly concerned” at this stage.
He added that the coronavirus pandemic had taught countries to react quickly to potential health threats. “Draconian measures will be taken to immediately stop the outbreak,” he said.
Avian flu has ravaged several European countries, including France, where hundreds of thousands of birds have been slaughtered to stop the infection.
Russia’s Vektor State Center for Virology and Biotechnology, which detected transmission to workers on poultry farms, also developed one of the country’s various coronavirus vaccines.
In the Soviet era, the laboratory, located in Koltsovo, outside the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, conducted secret investigations into biological weapons.
It still stores viruses ranging from Ebola to smallpox.
In television statements, Vektor’s boss Rinat Maksyutov said the lab was ready to begin developing test kits to help detect possible cases of H5N8 in humans and start working on a vaccine.
The Soviet Union was a scientific source and Russia has tried to regain a leading role in vaccine research under President Vladimir Putin.
Russia registered the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in August, months ahead of Western competitors and even before large-scale clinical trials.
After initial skepticism in the West, The Lancet the magazine publishes results this month showing that the Russian vaccine, named after the Soviet-era satellite, is safe and effective.
© France-Presse Agency