Global health: the risk of human avian influenza outbreaks is low

The World Health Organization said, Friday, that the risk of spreading the (H5N8) strain of bird flu among humans appears to be low after it was discovered for the first time in the world by workers on a Russian farm.

Anna Popova, head of the consumer health watchdog (Rosbotrepandsor), said that Russia had detected the first case of influenza A (H5N8) in which the virus had passed from birds to humans, and had reported the matter to the World Health Organization.

A statement by the World Health Organization stated that seven people in Russia had been infected with the virus, but none of them had symptoms following an outbreak of the virus in a poultry farm in the southern Astrakhan region.

She added that the death of more than 100,000 of the 900,000 birds in the farm in December was the reason behind the start of the investigation.