It’s official, the H7N9 virus does come from poultry. By comparing viruses detected in animals with those found in human cases, the researchers were able to confirm this link, which they already suspected. However, specifies the British medical journal The Lancet, it is not transmissible from human to human. “Scientists in China have confirmed for the first time that influenza A H7N9 virus was transmitted from birds, specifically from chickens in a poultry market, to humans, “says the journal, which published the study in question. Transmission from animals to humans is believed to occur. moreover very easily.
Yet the vector that transported the virus from China to Taiwan, a 53-year-old man hospitalized since April 16, reportedly had no contact with poultry or birds while in China.
Currently, the virus progresses slowly for a provisional assessment of 108 patients and 22 deaths. The WHO delegation on Chinese territory warns: “the H7N9 virus would be among the most dangerous for humans that we have seen”. From now on, “the control of the epidemic in men will depend on the control of the epidemic in poultry,” said one of the authors of the study in a statement.
