Human case of bird flu found in UK
Human case of bird flu found in UK
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A human case of bird flu has been found in England, health officials have said. The virus was detected in a person in the West Midlands region who is said to have been infected while on a farm, having had "close and prolonged contact with a large number of infected birds".
The birds had the DI.2 genotype - which is known to be circulating in birds in the UK this season, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Monday. It is different to strains circulating among mammals and birds in the US. Anyone the individual has been in contact with has been contacted by officials and those at highest risk of exposure have been offered antiviral treatment, the agency said in a statement.
The person concerned is "currently well" and being treated at a High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) unit. The risk to the wider public is "very low", the agency said, adding that it's rare for people to catch the H5N1 virus, also called avian influenza, from birds.
No cases of human-to-human transmission have been detected despite what the UKHSA called "extensive recent surveillance of influenza A(H5N1)" amid multiple bird flu outbreaks in birds across the country. The case was detected as part of routine surveillance for bird flu by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), which discovered an outbreak in a flock of birds.
