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 had been detected in workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia. Bloomberg News reported. Authorities reported information on cases to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Popova said the workers had minor cases and were recovered. The poultry farm was the site of a bird outbreak in December, Bloomberg noted.
“It is not transmitted from person to person. But only time will tell how soon future mutations will allow him to overcome this barrier, “she said, according to the news media. “The discovery of this strain now gives everyone, the whole world, time to prepare for possible mutations and the opportunity to react in a timely manner and develop testing systems and vaccines.”
In a statement to The Hill, the WHO said that “it has been notified by the Russian Federation about human infection with H5N8 bird flu through international health regulatory mechanisms.”
“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 humans,” he said. shows in the statement. “We are in talks with national authorities to gather more information and assess the impact of this event on public health.”
Reuters noted that outbreaks have occurred in Europe, China, the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, but only in poultry.
Updated at 2:30 p.m.