H10N3 strain of avian flu: How it spreads, is it dangerous and what are the preventive measures? All your questions answered

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A 41-year-old man from China’s Zhenjiang city became the first known case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of avian flu, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) informed on June 1.

What is the nature of the disease? Is it dangerous?

H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the avian flu in poultry and its risk of spreading on a large scale is very low, Chinese health experts have claimed.

Filip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases at the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, has assured: “The strain is not a very common virus.” He added, only about 160 isolates of the virus have been reported in the past 40 years (till 2018), that too, mostly in wild birds or waterfowl in Asia and some parts of North America.

None has been detected in chicken so far.

Genetic data of the virus will have to be studied to understand if it resembles older viruses or is a novel mix of different viruses.

How does the H10N3 virus spread? Is it contagious?

Chinese health authorities have downplayed any potential risk of an outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans. They added that its chances of spiralling into a pandemic are extremely low.

No other case of H10N3 infection in humans has been reported previously from anywhere in the globe.

Besides, the patient who got infected is currently stable too and meets discharge standards, China’s CGTN TV reported. The people who came in his contact have also reportedly not developed any symptoms of the H10N3 avian flu strain or reported any “abnormalities” yet.

How to prevent the spread of H10N3 bird flu among humans?

Health experts have advised people in the region to avoid contact with sick or dead poultry and avoid direct contact with live birds as much as possible.

Additionally, people must pay attention to food hygiene at the moment.

They should wear masks and improve self-protection awareness, while constantly monitoring fever and respiratory symptoms, the NHC has advised.

(With agency inputs)