07.08.2013

Qi et al (2013) BMJ

A new H7N9 strain of avian influenza been transmitted from person to person for the first time, scientists reported.
Until now, no clear evidence indicated that the novel virus could transmit from person to person. Research published in the British Medical Journal indicated that the virus had moved between a father and daughter in eastern China.
Family clusters with confirmed avian H5N1 virus infection were reported. Humans seemed to be more susceptible to the H7N9 virus than the H5N1 virus. It is therefore vital to establish whether the novel virus can transmit from person to person because of the potential threat of a pandemic if it possesses sustainable transmissibility between humans. The new study reports a family cluster of two patients with novel avian H7N9 virus infection.

The index patient was a retired man aged 60 with a history of hypertension for more than 10 years. He developed a fever, cough, and shortness of breath on 8 March 2013 and was admitted to a Chinese hospital on March 11 with a left upper lobe inflammation.
The index patient’s daughter, an unemployed woman aged 32, was otherwise healthy without any underlying illnesses. She provided bedside care for her father until he was admitted to the hospital intensive care unit. She developed fever and cough on 21 March. On 24 March, she was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia in the left upper lobe. Both died from multiple organ failure despite intensive care treatment. While the man probably contracted the virus from his recent exposure to live poultry. The daughter had no such exposure and had not visited the markets recently. The two H7N9 strains of virus isolated from the individuals were almost genetically identical.