First human case of avian flu in Australia. According to the Department of Health, this is a child who contracted the infection in India and then returned to the State of Victoria”. The symptoms date back to March. The avian influenza virus was subsequently detected through further testing of positive influenza samples, carried out to detect new or interesting virus strains, as part of an enhanced surveillance programme.
Contact tracing, health authorities inform, has not identified further cases of avian influenza linked to this. The child had developed “a serious infection”, but now “he is no longer sick and has recovered completely”, we read in the note. Experts point out that “there is no evidence of ongoing transmission” of the virus “in Victoria and the possibility of further human cases occurring is very low”.
Although the Victorian case is the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, it is not the same strain as those that have caused outbreaks in dairy cows in the United States and the human case in dairy workers, experts say. This, health officials finally inform, is also “the first time” ever “that H5N1 has been detected in Australia, in a person or an animal”.
Pregliasco: “Australia case from India is worrying, strengthen surveillance”
The report of the first human case of H5N1 avian influenza in Australia, in a child who was infected in India, the virologist from the State University of Milan Fabrizio Pregliasco tells Adnkronos Health, demonstrates “a sensitization and the ability to identify infections that Today I’m a bit like the proverbial needle in the haystack. Let’s also see the positive side of it.” The invitation is to “strengthen surveillance” also because, he admits, the news is “disturbing”.
The potential danger represented by the H5N1 virus for humans is “certainly worrying”, underlines the expert. He makes us think, he specifies, “especially the passage to Australia, therefore in a context territorially distinct from the rest of the world. A country that pays great attention to aspects concerning the importation of animals or food from other territories”. Not only. “The case in reality, from what we learn, was identified in a child from India and this is also worrying – reflects Pregliasco – because in those contexts the capacity and sensitivity of the surveillance systems do not have the same characteristics” as in other areas of the world. “The element of concern is a bit like this, namely that H5N1 is even more widespread than is thought, is not said and has not been detected to date. Instead – reiterates the virologist – it is an element that must make us strengthen surveillance activities globally”.
Ciccozzi: “No alarm from Australia, good news, no other infections”
The human case of avian influenza A H5N1 infection, reported in Australia “has nothing to do with the epidemic in the USA” and, epidemiologist Massimo Ciccozzi tells Adnkronos Salute, “I hypothesize that it could be a volatile passage – man given that the child contracted the infection in India where avian flu is as common as in South East Asia”. “In 2003, when there was an avian flu epidemic, many elderly people and children who lived in close contact with chickens fell ill in Turkey. The good news is that this case recorded in Australia in March did not lead to other infections in the country . It is a temporary flu, probably due to contact with an infected animal“.
Bassetti: “Equip hospitals with tests and pandemic plan”
Avian flu and the risks it could also represent for human health, Matteo Bassetti, director of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa, comments to Adnkronos Salute, “in recent months, they have now become the order of the day in the news infectious diseases”. I believe the time has come to further raise the level of attention”: hospitals should have specific tests available to diagnose any H5N1 virus infections and the new pandemic plan should be approved.
“The news that is coming out with a certain consistency – reasons the expert – should not even alarm, but at least invite us to raise attention to what is now a global phenomenon. We are faced with an infection, that of the avian virus in humans, which originated in Southeast Asia, has reached the North American continent and now Australia, passing through India. Practically there are no areas of the world that are not affected by this pathogen.” Regarding the Australian case, “it is not clear from which side the child contracted H5N1, but it seems to me that we understand very well how this infection is increasingly making headlines”. Therefore “I believe the time has come to make an important step which is the diagnostic one”. Concretely, Bassetti believes it is appropriate “for hospitals all over the world to equip themselves to have diagnostic systems for the H5N1 virus. Since it is a microorganism which, as we are seeing, can affect humans, when faced with a respiratory infection of which It is not clear what the etiological cause could be, I think the possibility of having tests for H5N1 also available at least in the reference hospitals should be taken into consideration.”
“It seems to me that it is right to talk about avian flu more and more, but also to equip ourselves”, is the infectious disease specialist’s warning. “I understand that the new Italian pandemic plan has been prepared – he recalls – but not yet definitively approved, it has not yet been sent to the Regions. I hope and hope – hopes Bassetti – that all this news will stimulate those responsible to work on this too point”.
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