What is avian influenza H3N8?

Recently, a case of H3N8 was reported in Zhongshan, Guangdong. The patient had a history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of the disease and a history of wild poultry activities around his home. The test result was positive for H3N8 avian influenza virus nucleic acid. Experts believe that the case that occurred this time is an isolated case and the risk of virus transmission is low at this stage.

Seeing this, some netizens may say, what's going on? A few days ago, the hot search said that more than 4,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 nucleic acid every day. H1N1 and Norovirus have not completely passed, and now H3N8 avian influenza has joined in the fun. Isn't this too frustrating? What kind of influenza is H3N8? Is it serious? Let's talk about it today.

01. Equine Flu

H3N8, this subtype is special in that it infects a wide range of animals. It was first found to infect horses, so it is called equine influenza.

It was first discovered in Miami, USA in 1963. At that time, the virus caused an infection in horses, so H3N8 was called equine influenza.

It caused a considerable infection at the time, but fortunately the virus did not survive well after leaving the horse, so it was relatively fragile.

Of course, it has also been found that this virus can also infect the horse's close relatives, such as donkeys, mules, zebras, etc.

02. Dog Flu

Interestingly, it was later discovered that the virus can also infect dogs, causing an epidemic of canine flu, also known as canine flu.

There is still controversy about the transmission of this virus in dogs. Some believe that it is transmitted from dog to dog, while others believe that it is transmitted from dog to human. The general mortality rate is between 1% and 5%.

Symptoms in dogs are: cough, pneumonia.

However, there is currently no evidence that dogs can infect humans.

03. H3N8 avian influenza

Later, it was discovered that the virus also infected poultry, and thus we had the bird flu mentioned in the news. Finally, it was discovered that it could infect humans!

For example, last year, in 2022, Henan reported a case of human infection with H3N8 avian influenza, and subsequently, Hunan also reported a case of infection in Changsha.

Now, Guangdong has reported cases in Zhongshan City where humans were infected with avian influenza H3N8.

From these news, we can see that the cross-species ability of H3N8 is relatively strong: horses, dogs, poultry and humans.

04. About avian influenza

It is still possible for a virus to cross families, for example, humans, horses, dogs, etc. all belong to different families of mammals, but it is difficult to cross classes. Even if the coronavirus comes from bats to camels, civets or humans, it is still in the class of mammals.

Therefore, the fact that the virus can be transmitted from birds to humans shows that it is quite special. Fortunately, there are no cases of human deaths caused by this virus.

Regarding bird flu causing human deaths, the most famous one is H5N1. In 1997, Hong Kong reported the first death caused by bird flu. Subsequently, many cases of death caused by bird flu H5N1 were discovered. Therefore, H5N1 is also known as "highly pathogenic" bird flu.

Generally speaking, H3N8 is a relatively mild avian influenza. For ordinary people, all they need to do is reduce contact with live poultry.

You can listen to the advice of experts:

The public should try to avoid direct contact with live poultry and dead poultry in daily life;

Take good personal protection, pay attention to food hygiene, separate raw and cooked food, and cook meat thoroughly before eating;

If anyone is found to have respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, etc., they should wear a mask and seek medical attention as soon as possible. If they have had contact with poultry before becoming ill, they should actively tell the doctor.