Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Anatoly Altstein commented on reports of human infection with the H5N8 strain of avian influenza.
“If he was a danger, there would already be known confirmed cases of transmission from person to person,” the scientist said in an interview with Vechernaya Moskva.
According to the virologist, several people could get sick directly from birds in conditions of high concentration of the virus. This is confirmed by the fact that all known infected people work in the poultry farm in close contact with a large number of birds.
In any case, the news of human infection from poultry is unusual, Altstein noted. After all, bird flu "in its usual form is not transmitted to people."
- We have to wait a few days. At present, apparently, the families of the infected and everyone with whom they came in contact are under surveillance. In such cases, people are quarantined. If the disease spreads, it will be stopped immediately,”the doctor said.
Altstein expressed the hope that human-to-human transmission of the H5N8 virus strain will not occur and there will be no new threat to human health.
On Saturday, February 20, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, announced the confirmation of the first case of human infection with the H5N8 strain of bird flu in southern Russia. Seven employees of the poultry farm became infected.