First H6N1 Bird Flu Case Identified in Taiwanese Woman

The first human case of H6N1 bird flu has been identified in a 20-year-old Taiwanese woman, according to news reports.

Scientists are baffled at the appearance of this strain of bird flu in humans as it was earlier believed that H6N1 could not infect humans. Officials are calling for immediate identification of the flu strains in infected people before it spreads.

This case was reported in June by the officials but this is the first detailed report of the H6N1 patient.

The victim was admitted in May with flu like symptoms that included fever, cough and shortness of breath. She was treated with Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and since she responded well to the treatment she was released.

But when the doctors examined the reports of the throat swabs tested at Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control, they identified an unclassified subtype of influenza A virus. With the help of genome sequencing they soon concluded that the virus was of new avain origin called H6N1, similar to what is seen in chickens. This virus is commonly found in birds. This is the first human case of H6N1.

"A genetic analysis of the H6N1 virus identified in a 20-year-old woman shows a virus that has evolved the ability to target a receptor called SAα-2,6 found in the human upper respiratory tract, potentially enabling adaptation of the virus to human cells ", explains  Dr Ho-Sheng Wu from the Centres for Disease Control in Taiwan.

The scientists have no strong evidence that the flu strain H6N1 can spread between humans. The time when the woman was identified with the virus H6N1, there were other 125 cases of flu reported in Taiwan but none of them were caused by H6N1. Apart from this, the researchers also identified 36 other people who had come in contact with the patient after she contracted the virus, but none of them tested positive for the H6N1 flu strain, reports LiveScience.

The young woman was working in a deli and has no direct contact with live birds. So the researchers are unable to decode the mystery of how the woman became infected with the virus.

 It was in 1996 when the first bird flu strain H5N1 triggered a pandemic in China. Since then the progress of the virus has been under constant watch. It has caused around 360 deaths worldwide. Later in April of this year, the latest infection of H7N9 bird flu virus was reported in China that sickened 139 people and killed 45, reports the World Health Organization.

The researchers are conducting further investigations to identify the potential threat the emerging virus can have. They are also trying to understand the spread of this virus from animals to people.

The study will be documented in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.