Guangdong Province, China reported that a 56-year-old woman was infected with H3N8 avian influenza. The official launched a follow-up investigation of close contacts. At present, it is believed that this case should be an isolated case.

But experts warn that the bird flu virus could spawn the next human pandemic.

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(European News Agency)

[Central News Agency] Guangdong Province, China reported a 56-year-old female infected with H3N8 bird flu. Officials launched a follow-up investigation of close contacts. At present, it is believed that this case should be an isolated case.

But experts warn that the bird flu virus could spawn the next human pandemic.

The official website of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention released on March 26 that Zhongshan City reported a case of H3N8. The case was a 56-year-old female with a history of multiple myeloma and other underlying diseases. She had a history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of the disease, and a history of wild bird activities around her home.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention tested the case specimens and the result was positive for H3N8 avian influenza virus nucleic acid.

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The Guangdong Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that it has guided Zhongshan City to carry out epidemiological investigations, close contact tracking and management, investigation of epidemic-related places, and on-site killings.

No abnormalities have been found in close contacts so far.

Experts believe that this case is a sporadic case, and the risk of virus transmission is low at this stage.

Lu media 21 Finance and Economics reported that scientists from China and Australia have analyzed nearly 50 years of animal influenza records and pointed out that the next pandemic to sweep humans may be caused by a new strain of influenza virus produced in animals. There is little immunity to this virus.

The study, jointly conducted by Fudan University and the University of Sydney, was recently published in the journal "One Health".

The scientific research teams of the two countries created a database containing more than 70,000 animal influenza records from 1970 to 2016, and conducted in-depth studies on the trends of these viruses in time and space.

It provides a framework to detect and track outbreaks of animal viruses that have the potential to emerge in human populations.

The report pointed out that since March this year, bird flu outbreaks have occurred in Europe, Japan, the United States and other regions, and bird flu outbreaks have also occurred in Argentina, the world's eighth largest exporter of poultry products.

At the same time, in late February, the Cambodian health department reported two cases of human infection caused by the A(H5N1) avian influenza virus, of which the second case was a family contact of the first case.

The researchers concluded that bird flu could be the source of the next new pandemic strain.

There are many subtypes of avian influenza, and birds are their natural hosts, which increases the possibility of avian influenza becoming a zoonotic disease.

Gao Fu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said that under normal circumstances, the bird flu virus is not easy to penetrate into the lower respiratory tract of people, and even if it arrives, it will be bound by tissue mucus, making it difficult to spread.

However, it is not ruled out that some avian influenza viruses have the ability to bind to human-related receptors, and H3N8 is one of them.