[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Russia announced on the 20th (local time) that it has confirmed the first human infection case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI: bird flu) H5N8 virus.
According to TASS and other sources, Anna Popova, head of the local health, hygiene, and quarantine authority 'Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor),' stated at a briefing that "experts from the National Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology 'Vector,' under the supervision of the agency, isolated genetic samples of the H5N8 subtype of the AI virus A type from seven workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia," adding that this is the first case of humans infected with H5N8.
The farm is known to have experienced an AI outbreak among poultry in December last year.
Popova said that all measures to protect humans and animals were promptly taken, all risks were minimized, and no further developments have occurred.
She stated, "All seven infected individuals are in good health, and clinical symptoms were mild," but added, "biological warfare changes and immune responses were confirmed in all of them."
Popova explained that through this case, interspecies transmission of the H5N8 virus from poultry to humans has been confirmed, but no human-to-human transmission cases have been identified yet.
Popova also introduced that the first human infection case of the H5N8 virus confirmed in Russia was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) a few days ago.
AI is a zoonotic virus that infects birds such as migratory birds, chickens, and ducks, but it can also infect humans. In 2013, the H7N9 type AI was transmitted to humans in China, and the H5N1 type has also infected humans.
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