Bird flu: first fatality of 2021 reported at AIIMS
New Delhi: India reported its first documented bird flu fatality this year when a 12-year-old boy succumbed to the H5N1 avian influenza at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national capital on Tuesday.
He was undergoing treatment for a respiratory tract infection.
The boy was admitted to the paediatric department in June-end and underwent Covid-19 and influenza tests during the treatment.
“Though his samples tested negative for Covid-19, influenza samples tested positive but non-typeable,” an official said.
The National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, had confirmed a positive H5N1 avian influenza. The National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) immediately conducted a contract tracing to identify any similar symptomatic cases the boy came in contact with,” a doctor added, according to media reports on Monday.
An AIIMS official said “The 12-year-old boy was found infected with H5N1 (avian flu). He was suffering from leukemia and pneumonia.”
“All staff who had exposure to him should monitor themselves for any signs and symptoms of flu and report if any are present,” he added.
Highly pathogenic Asian avian influenza virus, commonly known as H5N1, infects sick birds. It can also be contracted by humans and passed from one person to another.
It often enters the human body through the eyes, nostrils, and mouth from close proximity with infected people or dead birds, or an H5N1 contaminated environment. The infected birds spread it with their saliva, mucous, and feces.
Influenza can lead to lower respiratory tract pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in humans.
WHO reveals that though human cases of the H5N1 are rare, the mortality rate of the infection is 60%, as opposed to only a 3 percent mortality rate in Covid-19 cases.
India experienced 1st avian influenza outbreak in February 2006. However, the cases of H5N8 and H5N1 resurfaced this year with influenza reports from different parts of the country.
(Avya Mathur)
