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Commentary
Guangdong H7N9 Cluster In Huai - 28M & 5M
Recombinomics Commentary 21:30
February 2, 2014
European, male, 5 years old, currently residing in Zhaoqing Huaiji County Huai town. February 1 confirmed human cases of avian influenza H7N9 infection, the patient's condition is currently stable in Zhaoqing City, the designated hospital admission.
The above translations from the Guangdong Province Health and Family Planning website describe two recent H7N9 bird flu cases (28M & 5M) from Huai town in Zhaoqing Huaiji county. These two cases were reported one day apart and the confirmation of a child with mild or stable H7N9 that is geographically and temporally linked to a severe or fatal adult case raises concerns that the young cases are contacts of the severe cases.
China has focused surveillance on severe hospitalized cases, but recently has cited milder cases, with these linkages in time and space. Sequences from these clusters have been largely lacking, but these associations are far from random.
The above cluster in Guangdong Province is within 100 miles of a similar cluster in Hunan Province (38M and 8F) and each cluster is less than 50 miles from the first H7N9 case (56F) in Guangxi Province (see map).
These cases and clusters raise concerns that the efficiency of human to human (H2H) H7N9 transmission is increasing.
Release of sequences from these clusters, as well as the relationships between the cluster members, would be useful.
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