Human bird flu

[Bookaboo]

There has been a case of human bird flu at a hospital near me. This was over a week ago.
I find it a bit wierd that this hasn't been in the news, given that the authorities are on heightened alert because of all the outbreaks at poultry farms. There was nothing on HPA or PHE sites when I looked earlier.
Anyone else heard anything?

Almost all human flu came from birds, originally.
Do you know which strain, H5N1 or something?

Sorry don't know what strain. But whichever it is, it's usually reported if it's one of the bird flu sub types.
The person was admitted with breathing difficulties. They did a test and found it was bird flu. The person was then treated in isolation. I believe they're home now.
I wonder if this has been circulating more widely than we realise.

No-one else thinks this is concerning?

I do find it interesting that there is a strain of bird flu in the UK (Lancashire, I think) that is supposedly not transmittable to humans; and in the same year there is an outbreak of a horrendous hacking cough that lasts 4+ weeks. Coincidence? Nobody seems to be saying where this hacking cough has come from.

Not so exciting because we are spoilt for choice when it comes to zillions of old bugs that could make us ill, and most winters a lot of people get moderately ill from new variations on the usual suspects. Cold & Flu viruses mutate constantly so we struggle to maintain long-term immunity.

I've been ill for weeks myself this winter. It sucks! Some kind of bronchitis, I think now. Oh well. Pretty bog standard stuff. Glad not to have E.Coli or Salmonella.

How did you find out about it?

eggysmom I don't think they know with certainty it's not transmittable to humans, just that there hadn't been any known instances. I've had the bad cough, worse cough I've ever had I'd say, but the precursor to that was a bad cold. Not flu, I don't think. Then again perhaps it's possible that it just causes a mild illness in people.

Yes we're spoilt for choice with bugs, lljkk, but when someone in China falls ill with a new strain of bird flu, we generally find out about it as a matter of public health concern, so I think it's odd there's no news about this case.
It's not usual for someone with a generic winter bug to be treated in isolation.

I found out about it from a friend of the family.