faulker024

As noted in the previous post, there have been at least 460 human cases of H7N9 reported in the current H7N9 outbreak between November 1, 2016 and February 27, 2017. Of great concern is a possibility that many of these cases are a result of human-to-human transmission. There is little publicly available information about the relationships, if any, among these hundreds of cases. To date, only four two-person clusters have been reported by the World Health Organization (WHO, January 17 and February 20) with family members comprising three of the clusters. For all four of these clusters, the WHO notes that human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out. One important clue to the nature of the outbreak is the geographic distribution of the reported cases. An indirect signal of human-to-human transmission can be multiple cases occurring in a localized geographic area within a short period of time. The recent WHO line listing of H7N9 cases from China ( Influenza at the Human Animal Interfa...

The first human cases of infection from a reassortant avian influenza  A(H7N9) virus were reported from the People’s Republic of China (China) on March 31, 2013.[1] Since then more than 145 confirmed and probable human cases of H7N9 infection have been officially reported. Of the cases reported through December 31, 2013, about 71% are male and 29%, female. Among the reported cases, the ages range from 2 years old to 91 years old. The median age is 60. Besides two imported case in Taiwan, one in April and one in December 2013, all other H7N9 have occurred within the country of China. A recent summary of human H7N9 cases is presented on pages 102 and 103 in Update on the situation of avian influenza A(H7N9) infection by the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection.[2] Another current summary is available from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.[3] The last official World Health Organization (WHO) tabulation of cases was published in October 25, 2013.[4]   ...