Subhajit Nan, Amity University, Kolkata
In the ongoing pandemic where the lion’s share of information and research is based on SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, one particular observation regarding another virus should definitely be a cause of concern in the scientific community.
What are the viruses, their symptoms, and modes of infection?
“Avian influenza Type-A” viruses infect the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts of birds. They have been found in more than 100 different species of wild birds around the world. While these viruses don’t generally infect humans, birds can shed viruses in their saliva, mucous, and faeces. Humans can get infected only if enough virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth. Nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and severe respiratory illness can be counted as symptoms. But chances are slim.
What is the case all about?
A man in eastern China may be the first confirmed human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday. The 41-year-old man from Jiangsu province, located northwest of Shanghai, was hospitalized on April 28 after developing fever and other symptoms. He was diagnosed with the infection on May 28. Presently, his condition is stated to be stable, and ready to be discharged from the hospital.
Why is this so significant?
The NHC said the infection was a result of accidental cross-species transmission. The risk of widespread transmission is low, according to them, and there are currently no other human cases of H10N3 reported elsewhere in the world, as of now.
While it is possible for some of these viruses to be transmitted from birds to humans, they, however, don’t have the capability of transmitting from human to human, so far. But it is feared that if they were to transmit from human-to-human, then we would be in a worse situation than COVID-19 in terms of case fatality rates, which means, the death rates would have been higher than what we are witnessing in case of the ongoing pandemic caused due to SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It is likely to cause a pandemic of magnitude like COVID-19?
It may be unlikely the H10N3 strain can transmit between humans but researchers and scientists can’t know for sure until they learn its genetic code and conduct epidemiological surveillance to determine if any other contacts were infected. So further research, in this case, is awaited to know more in detail.
It is believed that the reason for that transmission is those avian influenza viruses spread among avian species using different receptors than mammalian influenza viruses. In order for these viruses to transmit (among humans), the virus needs to adapt. There are several adaptation steps and, so far, this has not happened with avian flu viruses.
Hence, we can heave a sigh of relief, as of now. This virus is not coming for us to make us stay indoors again after the second wave of COVID-19 passes away!
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