A two-year-old girl was admitted to hospital with bird flu after contracting the virus while on a trip to India.
The case has been reported to the World Health Organization due to it being the first confirmed human infection of A(H5N1) detected and reported in Australia.
A WHO spokesman said: "Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, the exposure likely occurred in India, where the case had travelled, and where this clade of A(H5N1) viruses has been detected in birds in the past."
The youngster returned to Australia in March after a trip in February. On March 2, she was admitted to a hospital in Victoria where she received medical care. She was then transferred to the intensive care unit in Melbourne, where she stayed for a week, after her symptoms worsened. She was eventually discharged after two and a half weeks and the girl is now said to be "clinically well".
The Victorian Department of Health reported on 23 May 2024 that the family advised that the child started to feel unwell on 25 February 2024, with loss of appetite, irritability and fever, and was taken to a doctor on the evening of 28 February 2024 in India. She was febrile, coughing and vomiting and was given paracetamol. It was not reported to an Australian airport biosecurity officer that the child was unwell when she arrived in Australia on 1 March 2024, Wales Online reports.
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Additional information provided by the family indicates that the girl did not travel outside of Kolkata, India, and did not have any known exposure to sick persons or animals while in India. It is understood that no close family contacts of the case in Australia or India developed symptoms.
A nasopharyngeal swab and endotracheal aspirate taken on 6 and 7 March respectively tested positive for influenza A at the referral hospital. The samples were sent to the WHO CC for further characterisation on 3 April as part of a batch, as there was insufficient knowledge from the referring practitioners at the hospital to connect the case to the H5N1 virus.
Avian influenza virus infections in humans may cause disease ranging from mild upper respiratory tract infection to more severe disease and can be fatal. Conjunctivitis, gastrointestinal symptoms, encephalitis and encephalopathy have also been reported.
From 2003 to 22 May 2024, 891 cases of human infections with avian influenza A(H5N1), including 463 deaths, have been reported to WHO from 24 countries. Almost all of these cases have been linked to close contact with infected live or dead birds, or contaminated environments.
India has reported detections of avian influenza A(H5N1) in domestic birds in 2024 to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). As the virus continues to circulate in poultry, the potential for further sporadic human cases remains. This is the first human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) reported in Australia.
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