The man, a resident of the city of Zhenjiang, was admitted to hospital on April 28 and diagnosed with H10N3 on May 28, the health commission said on Tuesday. It did not give details on how the man was infected.

His condition is now stable and he is ready to be discharged. Investigation of his close contacts found no other cases, the NHC said.

Patient’s exposure ‘unknown’

The World Health Organization (WHO), in a reply to the Reuters news agency in Geneva, said: “The source of the patient’s exposure to the H10N3 virus is not known at this time and no other cases were found in emergency surveillance among the local population. At this time, there is no indication of human-to-human transmission. 

“As long as avian influenza viruses circulate in poultry, sporadic infection of avian influenza in humans is not surprising, which is a vivid reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic is persistent,” the WHO added.

The strain is “not a very common virus”, said Filip Claes, the regional laboratory coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases at the regional office for Asia and the Pacific.

Only about 160 isolates of the virus were reported in the 40 years to 2018, mostly in wild birds or waterfowl in Asia and some limited parts of North America, and none had been detected in chickens so far, he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO), in a reply to the Reuters news agency in Geneva, said: “The source of the patient’s exposure to the H10N3 virus is not known at this time and no other cases were found in emergency surveillance among the local population. At this time, there is no indication of human-to-human transmission.