SYDNEY/CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia reported its first human case of avian influenza on Wednesday in a child who authorities said had been infected in India, while a different highly contagious strain was found on an egg farm.
Health authorities in Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria said contact tracing had not identified any further cases and there was a very low chance of others becoming infected as the flu does not easily spread between people.
“This is the first confirmed human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Australia,” Dr Claire Looker, the state’s chief health officer, said in a statement.
It was the first instance of detection of the H5N1 strain in a person or animal in the country, she added.
The case in Victoria involves an H5N1 virus, but the strain is not the same as those responsible for outbreaks in the United States, Looker said.
A farm worker in Texas tested positive for the virus earlier this year as it spread through the U.S. cattle herd.
Australia is the only continent where animals have so far stayed free of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but authorities on Wednesday said a different strain of highly pathogenic bird flu had been detected at an egg farm near Melbourne.
First laboratory tests showed that virus was an as yet unidentified H7 strain that probably came from the wild bird population and had been seen in Australia before …
