What we know about the first transmission to humans of avian influenza H5N8

Russia announced that it had detected the first case of transmission to humans of the H5N8 strain of bird flu.

The Russian health agency Rospotrebnadzor said that it had detected “the first case of a person's infection with the group A virus, avian influenza H5N8,” particularly virulent. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the discovery “important.” Appeared in France in 2016 in poultry farms in Tarn and Pas-de-Calais, this strain has long been perceived as “harmless" to humans.”

Hervé Fleury, virologist and emeritus researcher at the CNRS also serving on Ventum's Scientific Board has been warning about the virus' evolution; he told L'express in their article that the H5N1 virus had also passed to humans, as had the H7N9. "The barriers between species are not as severe as one would think" he added.

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