WASHINGTON, DC With human cases of avian influenza H7N9 stacking, the Chinese authorities have ordered the closure of markets live poultry in three cities in the east in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus. So far, the Chinese Center for Control and Prevention (China CDC) indicates that it has not detected sustained transmission from human to human virus. But experts see no reason to breathe easy. If H7N9 were to acquire the ability to spread, warns Chen Hualan, director of the National Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Harbin, China, "it will be a disaster."
So far in January, there have been 105 confirmed human cases, according to the Chinese CDC, compared to 144 in all of 2013 after the virus emerged in China last February . Scientists agree that the wearing of the H7N9 poultry, and some suspect that quail can be the main tank. But confused monitoring, the virus does not cause noticeable symptoms in poultry. While some human infections are mild, Chen noted, the mortality rate was nearly 30% of hospitalized cases in 2013. The death rate has tapered and 2014 event is running about 20%, according to the Chinese CDC.
the time of the slight increase in cases is alarming: tens of millions of Chinese are about to embark on an annual migration to their hometowns to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a holiday of a week starting from January 31. As a preventive measure, the Zhejiang provincial authorities ordered the immediate closure of all live poultry markets in the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jinhua, according to state news agency Xinhua. Hangzhou officials would step up checks at poultry farms and try to stop "the flight of pigeons." Shanghai, meanwhile, plans to close its live poultry markets from January 31 to April 30.
the situation is dangerous, warns Chen, who spoke here today at the American Society for Biodefense Research Meeting and emerging microbiological diseases. His team and others reported last year that some H7N9 strains can be transmitted by airborne droplets from infected to naïve ferrets, an animal used to model the spread of influenza in humans. "I'm pretty sure it was human to human transmission in Zhejiang," Chen said the meeting. She said afterward to Science Insider she was referring to reports of three people infected from the same family in Zhejiang.
Other researchers point out that the human transmission of evidence to man is tenuous. "There are some family clusters" in which investigators could not rule out limited human to human transmission, said George Gao, director of Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. But the exposure to live poultry in these families could not be ruled out either, he said. "it's too early to say anything for the moment," he said.
the H7N9 pandemic could . be dark indeed the high mortality rate is a major concern; another is that H7N9 presents a formidable challenge to vaccinemakers the virus is stealthier than other flu strains, "able to evade the cellular immune response. human humoral, "reported a team led by Anne de Groot of the University of Rhode Island, Providence, in the May 2013 issue human Vaccines & immunotherapies .
" We will continue watching "signs of human transmission in sustainable human, Gao said," and a look of almost all cases. "
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