Human transmission H7N9 case suspected

Several Chinese epidemiological experts say that the world's first suspected case of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 bird flu virus has been found in China.

A paper on the study, carried by the British Medical Journal on Wednesday, reveals that a 32-year-old woman from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, was infected in March with the virus after taking care of her father, who was previously diagnosed as a carrier.

However, it stressed that the transmissibility was "limited and non-sustainable."

A press officer surnamed Chen from the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed to the Global Times Wednesday that two experts with the center contributed to the finding, but declined to comment.

The paper chronicles that the patient, 60, was found to have been infected with the virus some 10 days after he bought six quails in early March.

His daughter, who had never been exposed to live poultry and was in charge of taking care of him, including bedside care and washing his clothes without protective equipment, fell ill due to infection after six days of contact with her father.

Both of them died of multiple organ failure.

Further tests on the virus showed that the strains from the two people are almost genetically identical, supporting the assumption that the daughter was infected by his father rather than by live poultry.

Tests on another 43 people who had had close contacts with the two patients all showed negative for the virus, evidencing that the ability of human-to-human transmission was limited, said the paper.

The discovery contradicted domestic scientific research which said no evidence has been found that the H7N9 could be passed from human to human, and that people who had frequent contacts with live poultry were more likely to be infected.

Precautionary measures have been taken to prevent the spread of H7N9, with many local governments in China banning the sale of live poultry, leading to a massive recession in related industries.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on July 16 that as many as 132 patients of the H7N9 virus have been found in 10 provincial regions, of whom 43 died and 85 have recovered.

"Even if human-to-human transmission is proved to be true, there is no need to panic. It is a completely different situation from SARS in 2003," Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese CDC, told the Global Times Wednesday, adding that SARS is highly infectious to all people, while the H7N9 does not affect many people and cannot transmit continuously.

"The present precautionary measures don't have to be adjusted as it is just an isolated case," he said.