• Infectious All you need to know about the largest outbreak of bird flu in Europe that also affects Spain with the first case in humans

  • Health The threat of bird flu: "Cases of rare strains are becoming more and more frequent"

The World Health Organization (WHO) has just confirmed the existence of a

second case of bird flu in humans registered in Spain.

This is the second affected after the one reported last October on a farm in the province of Guadalajara.

This new case would be that of

another worker from the same poultry farm

, according to information that the Spanish public health authorities have sent to the WHO.

The international organization points out that "given the potential impact on public health, a multisectoral response that includes measures for control, prevention and early detection of influenza A(H5N1) was initiated at the poultry farm [after detecting the first case]. "In

the case of these individuals, the infection was probably due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments.

To date, no evidence of person-to-person transmission of

the influenza A(H5N1) virus has been identified in this event." The OMS.

After the response measures at the poultry farm, all the workers were tested on October 13 and the influenza A (H5N1) virus "was detected in a nasopharyngeal sample from another worker (

a 27-year-old man who participated in the control measures

, including cleaning and disinfection with personal protective equipment) ", details the WHO.

The man initially tested negative during the first round of testing on September 23.

The infected worker remained in isolation until October 22 when a second sample came back negative by RT-PCR.

Two close contacts of his were also identified and tested negative in respiratory sampling.

Both cases did not present any symptoms.

The samples were analyzed by RT-PCR at the National Center for Microbiology.

It should be remembered that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the reference laboratory of the European Union (EU) warned at the beginning of the last October, that the 2021-2022

bird flu

season is the largest observed in Europe so far.

Already then, there had been 2,467 outbreaks in poultry,

48 million birds slaughtered in affected establishments

, 187 detections in captive birds and 3,573 events of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds.

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