This article discusses the first ever reported cases of H10N8 avian influenza found in humans. Before December 2013, this strain of flu was only found in animals, mostly birds.
On December 17th, 2013, Chinese authorities contacted the World Health Organization after finding strands of H10N8 influenza in a 73-year-old woman from Jiangxi Province in China. The patient was reported to be hospitalized around November 30th with pneumonia and high fever. She would unfortunately pass away after multiple organ failures on December 6th. This patient was said to gave visited a poultry farm four days before becoming ill. Though there were no traces of this strain of flu at the farm one can not infer that she fell ill due to the poultry from that specific farm.
Another case was found also in Jiangxi Province China around January 30th, 2014. The World Health Organization reported a second case of the H10N8 influenza within a 55-year-old women, although she is now in stable condition.
“A genetic analysis of the H10N8 virus shows a virus that is distinct from previously reported H10N8 viruses, having evolved some genetic characteristics that may allow it to replicate efficiently in humans.”
-Yuelong Shu of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing
However, the case numbers for H10N8 influenza remain low in humans many scientists and doctors are more concerned with other influenza strains such as H7N9 and H5N1.
I found this article very interesting in many ways. First, both victims of this strain of flu were from the same city in China. Coincidence? Maybe… Also, I found it very interesting how doctors are thinking that this strain of flu newly found in humans is just an outlier. Even though there are not as many cases, this type of flue has never been found in humans before, wouldn't one think if it is now appearing in humans it should be looked at in some what greater detail? Should doctors pay more attention to "the new bird flu", or should they stay devoted to more serious and deathly forms of influenza?
I chose this article because it was so open ended. There is so much more we can learn and research about this type of disease and even then all of our questions won't be answered. It also relates somewhat to the unit about Typhoid Mary. In some ways these two victims struck with the H10N8 strand of influenza are outcasts, no one else has gotten this illness before in history (at least humans in that case). Just like Mary, even though others were asymptomatic carriers none were treated the way Mary Mallon was treated. Comparing the two is in a way a stretch but we can see how the influenza patients will be treated maybe differently than others that have gotten different strands of influenza because no one has paved the path in how to cure this flu.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39092/title/New-Bird-Flu-Threat-/
Liz, fantastic job with your blog post. I loved how conversational you kept your tone, but you also did a great job of giving us all the facts in an interesting and informative way. It is a very open ended topic, and after reading that I am considered that the bird flu is now affecting humans. Yes, it may be just two people that have been affected now, but that is no reason to push the problem under the rug. Are we just going to ignore the problem until there is a huge epidemic of bird flu? One thing I would have liked is if you had given us the generic names of the other flus you listed because I know personally I do not know the common names of the flus just based off of their letter and number name. Other than that I think you did a very nice job. This article definitely relates to our class because different flus are a big topic of discussion in an infectious epidemic disease class.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how much information you included in this post. I also think that this is an important issue that people should know about. There are so many diseases out there that I think get overlooked. An outbreak here and there can lead to a much bigger problem, but people will not be prepared for it. I enjoyed reading this post and thought it was very well written.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Liz, I thought this was a very interesting post and very thought provoking. It scares me that these diseases are evolving and can now infect humans. I certainly think scientist should put emphasis on these evolving strands of flu. Though the case numbers are still very low the flu can be easily spread and if it were to take off it would be hard to stop and prevent.
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