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Our H5N6 tracking map has gotten a lot more crowded over the past few weeks, with a 6th Chinese Province (Anhui) now reporting a human infection - just one week after Hunan province announced their first case.
A week before that, it was Hubei province reporting their first case.
After only recording 4 human H5N6 cases during the first 20 months following its emergence in April of 2014, over the past 6 months China has reported 9 new cases.
Despite this increase in human infection reports, all of these cases appear to be isolated, and we've seen no evidence of clustering, or human-to-human transmission.
This notification today from Hong Kong's CHP.
For more background on this emerging avian flu threat, you may wish to revisit these blogs from last year:
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) was notified of an additional human case of avian influenza A(H5N6) in Anhui by the National Health and Family Planning Commission today (May 3), and again urged the public to maintain strict personal, food and environmental hygiene both locally and during travel.
The case involves an 65-year-old woman who lives in Xuancheng, Anhui. With history of poultry contact before onset, the patient developed symptoms on April 24 and was admitted to a local hospital on April 27. She is now in critical condition.
From 2014 to date, a total of 13 human cases of avian influenza A(H5N6) have been reported by the Mainland health authorities.
"All novel influenza A infections, including H5N6, are statutory notifiable infectious diseases in Hong Kong," a spokesman for the CHP said.
"We will remain vigilant and work closely with the World Health Organization and relevant health authorities to monitor the latest developments," the spokesman said.
(Continue . . . )
H5N6: The Other HPAI H5 Threat
