A two-year-old girl catches bird flu on a trip to India

A two-year-old girl was diagnosed with bird flu – commonly known as bird flu – after returning from a trip to India. The World Health Organization has been notified of the case as it is the first confirmed human infection caused by avian influenza A(H5N1) virus detected and reported by Australia.

A spokesman said: “Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, the exposure likely occurred in India, where the case traveled and where this class of A(H5N1) viruses has been detected in birds in the past .”

The girl had been in India at the end of February and returned to Australia in March. She was taken to a hospital in Victoria on March 2 where she received medical attention and was admitted the same day. On March 4, the girl was transferred to the intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, due to worsening symptoms, for a period of one week.

The patient was discharged from the hospital after a 2.5-week hospitalization. The girl is “now reported to be clinically well.”

The Victorian Department of Health reported on 23 May 2024 that the family advised the child began to feel unwell on 25 February 2024 with loss of appetite, irritability and fever and was taken to the doctor on the evening of 28 February 2024 in India. . She was febrile, coughing and vomiting and was given paracetamol. It was not reported to an Australian airport biosecurity officer that the child was unwell when he arrived in Australia on 1 March 2024.

Additional information provided by the family indicates that the girl has not traveled outside of Kolkata, India and had no known exposure to sick people or animals while in India. No close family contacts of the case in Australia or India are understood to have developed symptoms.

A nasopharyngeal swab and an endotracheal aspirate taken on March 6 and 7, respectively, tested positive for influenza A at the referring hospital. The samples were sent to the WHO CC for further characterization on 3 April as part of a batch because there was insufficient knowledge from the referring practitioners at the hospital to link the case to the H5N1 virus.

Avian influenza virus infections in humans can cause illness ranging from mild upper respiratory tract infection to more severe illness and can be fatal. Conjunctivitis, gastrointestinal symptoms, encephalitis and encephalopathy have also been reported.

From 2003 to 22 May 2024, 891 cases of human infections with avian influenza A(H5N1), including 463 deaths, were reported to WHO from 24 countries. Almost all of these cases have been linked to close contact with live or dead infected birds or contaminated environments.

India reported detection of avian influenza A(H5N1) in domestic birds in 2024 to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). As the virus continues to circulate in poultry, the potential for new sporadic human cases remains. This is the first human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) reported in Australia.