Bird flu is the first human case of H10N3

China on Tuesday announced the first global human case of H10N3 avian influenza, a disease that usually affects birds, but officials say the risk of an epidemic is “extremely low”.

A 41-year-old patient from eastern Zhenjiang was admitted to hospital on April 28 with a fever. The health ministry said doctors decided a month later that he had the disease. “The risk of spreading on a large scale (in humans) is very low,” he said in a statement, noting that the patient could be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible.

Jiangsu provincial health officials have examined all contact cases and have not yet identified anyone with the virus. No details were provided regarding its polluting conditions.

“Low pathogen”

The Department of Health has identified H10N3 as “less likely to infect humans” and “less pathogenic” in birds – meaning less likely to cause the disease.

No other human cases of H10N3 have been reported anywhere else in the world so far, the minister said in a statement.

Many strains of the virus that causes avian influenza are found in animals in China, but massive infections are rare among humans. The other two strains of avian influenza, H5N1 (between 2003 and 2011), and later H7N9 (since 2013), have been linked to pollution in Asia through direct contact with infected chickens. But human-to-human transmission cases are very rare.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says H7N9 has killed 616 people in 1,668 cases since 2013.

France has been plagued by avian influenza H5N8 strain since last winter, killing millions of chickens, mainly ducks.