H5N1 Confirmed Case in Hunan China

Recombinomics Commentary 19:46
January 17, 2009

F, 2-year-old and currently residing in Xiaoyi City, Luliang Prefecture, Shanxi Province.

January 7, 2009 the incidence in Hunan, January 11 with the grandparents back to Shanxi, condition worsened after the January 14 Fenyang treatment in hospitals in Shanxi Province, with no significant symptomatic improvement after treatment, was on the 14th later transferred to Children's Hospital of Shanxi Province.

The above translation describes a confirmed H5N1 patient who is in critical condition. She is currently in Shanxi, although the initial incident is said to have been in Hunan. This case follows the fatal case (19F) in Beijing, which may have been part of a cluster involving a health care worker at the hospital.

Although it is unclear where the patient resided in Hunan, clade 7 has been isolated from both regions previously. Clade 7 was reported in Jiangsu last month and has caused a previous case in Beijing (in 2003).

More information on the circumstances surrounding the infection would be useful. China has not recently reported H5N1 in poultry in Hunan or Shanxi, raising concerns about the source of the infection, as well as reporting of H5N1 in poultry or wild birds in China.

More information on the circumstances associated with this case, as well as sequence data associated with the fatal case in Beijing would be useful.