H5N1 Confirmed in Myanmar Patient
Recombinomics Commentary
December 14, 2007
The Ministry of Health in Myanmar has confirmed the country's first case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case is a 7-year-old female from Kyaing Tone Township, Shan State (East).
The case was detected through routine surveillance following an outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in the area in mid-November.
She developed symptoms of fever and headache on 21 November 2007 and was hospitalized on 27 November. She has now recovered.
The above comments from a WHO update confirm H5N1 in a recovered patient in Myanmar (Burma). This is the first confirmed case in Myanmar and is the third country this year to confirm H5N1 in a patient, although confirmation in Pakistan is also expected. Earlier this year, H5N1 was confirmed in patients in Nigeria and Laos for the first time.
The Myanmar case may be the Fujian (clade 2.3) strain since the strain was detected in birds last year in Malaysia and Laos.
However, Myanmar’s proximity to Bangladesh and India raise the possibility that the infection is due to the Qinghai (clade 2.2), which was involved in the case in Nigeria and is almost certainly linked to the outbreak in Pakistan.
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