The Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) has reported two additional human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9), bringing the number of human cases to 777 on the Chinese Mainland since 2013.

What is known about the two patients is as follows:

  1. A female farmer aged 77 from Huzhou, Zhejiang, in serious condition. She bought poultry from a live poultry market before onset; and
  2. A man aged 89 from Suzhou, Jiangsu, in serious condition.

A spokesperson from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) in Hong Kong said, “As winter approaches, based on the seasonal pattern of avian influenza viruses, their activity in the Mainland is expected to increase. The public should avoid contact with poultry, birds and their droppings and should not visit live poultry markets and farms to prevent avian influenza”.

In addition to the 777 cases reported on the Mainland, 23 cases imported from China have been reported in Canada (2), Hong Kong (16), Malaysia (1) and Taiwan (4).

Related: 

Image/CDC
Image H7N9 avian influenza/CDC