India sees 2021’s first bird flu death as 11-year-old boy succumbs

New Delhi: India has reported its first bird flu death this year after an 11-year-old boy who was undergoing treatment at AIIMS for avian influenza, succumbed.

A senior All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) official said that the boy, who was infected with avian influenza, has died, and the entire staff concerned has been placed in isolation as a preventive measure.

What's bird flu?

According to the World Health Organisation, ‘avian influenza’, or ‘bird flu’, is a type of virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds. The global health body says human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally, but adds it is usually difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. There is no evidence the disease can be spread through thoroughly cooked food, the WHO says. However, when people do become infected, the mortality rate is a frightening 60 per cent.

As per reports, bird flu outbreaks were reported across the country earlier this year, including in Haryana where the H5N8 subtype -- which is not known to infect humans -- was detected.

After the bird flu outbreaks, the federal government sounded an alert after cases of were confirmed in Delhi also.

A sample collected from Red Fort had tested positive for bird flu in January. The Delhi government had then ordered the closure of the Ghazipur poultry market.

More samples collected from the Delhi zoo had returned positive in February. 

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