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 A separate influenza strain, H1N1, that emerged from pigs and spread
rapidly worldwide among humans led the WHO to declare an influenza
pandemic in 2009-2010. The outbreak turned out to be mild among
humans.
Russia registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus named
influenza A(H5N8) being passed to humans from birds and has reported
the matter to the WHO, Anna Popova, head of consumer health watchdog
Rospotrebnadzor, said on Saturday.
Seven people in Russia were found to be infected with H5N8, but all
were asymptomatic following an outbreak on a poultry farm in the
southern oblast (region) of Astrakhan, a WHO statement said. The
death of 101,000 of the farm's 900,000 egg-laying hens in December
had sparked the investigation, it said.
"All close contacts of these cases were clinically monitored, and no
one showed signs of clinical illness," it said. "Based on currently
available information, the risk of human-to-human transmission
remains low."
The WHO advised against any special traveller screening at points of
entry or restrictions on travel and or trade with the Russian
Federation, it added.
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 Outbreaks of the H5N8 strain
were reported last year in poultry or wild birds
in Britain, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt,
Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, the
Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Russia,
according to WHO.
The WHO statement said that developing zoonotic
influenza candidate vaccine viruses for
potential use in human vaccines remains an
essential part of WHO strategy for influenza
pandemic preparedness.
(This story corrects second paragraph to say
that H1N1 came from pigs, not birds)
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark
Heinrich)
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