Zhejiang Province – Credit Wikipedia
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Via Xinhua News we’ve the first real details on the Zhejiang family cluster I reported on early this morning (see Zhejiang Investigating Family Cluster Of H7N9 Cases).
Perhaps the most significant details surround the onset dates, with the father falling ill, and being confirmed infected on January 20th, while his daughter fell ill three days later.
The mother was confirmed infected on the 27th, a full week after the father.
While a common environmental source for infection is certainly possible, this timeline would also be consistent with human-to-human transmission as well.
Chinese family of three infected with H7N9
English.news.cn 2014-01-29 21:29:49
HANGZHOU, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authorities on Wednesday disclosed details of a family of three who were infected with the H7N9 bird flu in east China's Zhejiang Province.
A 49-old-man surnamed Yu from Hangzhou City was confirmed on Jan. 20 to have been infected with the bird flu virus. His 23-year-old daughter, who accompanied him at the hospital, was confirmed to have caught the flu three days later, according to the provincial health and family planning commission.
Yu's wife, who also accompanied him, was confirmed to have caught the virus on Jan. 27, according to the commission.
Yu has died. His daughter is in serious condition and his wife is slightly ill.
Experts so far have no final conclusion on how the virus spread among family members. Some think they all had contact with poultry, and others think the father transmitted the flu to his wife and daughter.
Even if the case is confirmed to be a person-to-person transmission, there is no need to panic, said Li Lanjuan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a specialist in H7N9 prevention.
"So far there have not been any cases in which one person transmits the flu to another, and the latter transmits the virus to a third person," said Li.
In this year's epidemic, the transmission has been limited to a second person, who does not transmit the virus to a third. The H7N9 bird flu is not likely to spread in schools, workplaces or gatherings, said Chen Zhiping, deputy head of the provincial disease control and prevention center.
The probability of continuous person-to-person transmission is very slim, said Feng Zijian, deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Three new human H7N9 cases were reported in Zhejiang on Wednesday, bringing the number of infections in the province this year to 56, according to the commission.
Live poultry trading has been halted in the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jinhua in Zhejiang, which has reported the most human H7N9 cases of any province. The province has launched emergency surveillance of poultry farms, parks, and migratory bird habitats, and has halted the flying of domestic pigeons.
As stated above, a family cluster – even if transmission between these three is confirmed – isn’t a game changer.
We’ve seen other instances of H7N9 transmission between family members (see BMJ: `Probable Person-to-Person Transmission’ Of H7N9), just as we’ve seen limited transmission of the H5N1 virus.
Should we begin to see a large number of family clusters, however, that would suggest a change in the behavior of the virus. Which is why we monitor and scrutinize these case reports so carefully.
