A New Threat: H7N9

The last week of classes is here, so naturally I'm studying for finals next week! The first final to study for is Epidemiology because I have that exam on Monday. Taking a break from studying, I decided to look into recent health news around the world and came across a story about Hong Kong confirming human cases of bird flu. The report was released today, December 3. For Hong Kong this is their first case of human bird flu. In February and April, China dealt with H7N9, but controlled the issue by shutdowns of chicken markets and farm quarantines. It has already taken the lives of 45 people in eastern China and a middle aged woman is in critical condition now. The woman may have become infected with the strain when she traveled to a bordering city called Shenzhen and bought and slaughtered a chicken. The virus is very lethal to humans, but birds show no symptoms at all. A few people have been in contact with the infected woman and are showing mild symptoms. Officials believe their are many more cases, but the lack of technology to diagnose the strain is a problem. The city's government has tightened their requirements, especially in hospitals, and is hoping to eliminate H7N9 soon. In order to control H7N9, the government may need to kill a number of birds, which is the global standard for controlling the avian flu that was established in 1997 after the H5N1 outbreak. Reading the article, I came across a segment about how diseases do not respect boundaries, I thought that was so interesting because as epidemiologists our work is not just isolated to an area, but may be spread out among many cities or even countries. It makes the job that much harder, but also that much more rewarding to trace how the disease traveled and figure out a plan of action for those affected. I’ll be following this story more as the government and health officials receive more information.
Stay tuned and happy studying to my fellow epidemiologists!


Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-02/hong-kong-confirms-city-s-first-human-case-of-h7n9-bird-flu