WHO: Global Alert and Response (GAR) – Disease Outbreak News
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2013_03_12/en/index.html
Human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus in China – update 19 April 2013

Excerpt
The National Health and Family Planning Commission of China notified WHO of an additional four laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus from Jiangsu 1 (0) and Zhejiang 3 (0). No additional death has been reported…

…To date, there are a total of 91 laboratory confirmed human cases with influenza A(H7N9) virus including seventeen fatalities in China reported from four Provinces: Anhui 3 (1), Henan 3 (0), Jiangsu 22 (3) and Zhejiang 30 (2) and two Municipalities: Beijing 1 (0) and Shanghai 32 (11). Currently, 67 patients are hospitalized and seven have been discharged.

So far, there is no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission.

WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event, nor does it recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied.

At the invitation of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, WHO has convened a team of experts who will visit areas affected by avian influenza A(H7N9) in China in order to provide recommendations on the prevention and control of the disease. For more information, please see:

Transcript of the media briefing by Dr Michael O’Leary, WHO Representative in China: Situation update on avian influenza A(H7N9) in China
Excerpt
…JOURNALIST: I’m from China Radio International. Two questions. One, on Tuesday, Hong Kong Health Organization said that this might be a limited human-to-human transmission; do you have any comments on this? And the second question, it was reported before that this team will go to the bird market in Shanghai, where else are they going? Like labs or hospital?

DR MICHAEL O’LEARY: Yes, sure. About limited person-to-person transmission, I mentioned that these clusters are under investigations. It’s not usual even when a virus primarily is transmitting from animal-to-human, to have some rare or occasional cases, of very close contacts, coming down with the virus as well. That’s happened in H5N1 for example. But that’s a very different situation from easy and sustained transmission. And that’s what we do not see in this case. It’s not unexpected that if a person is sick and maybe receiving very close care, from a very close contact, that once in a while, it will pass to the other person, but this is not the same as sustained human-to-human transmissions. So, that’s what we are very alert for, because this becomes a different situation if the virus were to change in a way that enabled human-to-human transmission. Still, that’s not the case, we hope that will never be the case. But that’s what we watch for. Other question about where was the team visiting. Yes, bird markets, although as you know, the live bird markets in Shanghai have been closed. So there won’t be a lot to see. But the team is also on schedule to visit hospitals and other sites that have been the focus of the infection.

JOURNALIST: From BBC News. Could please just tell me, to be clear, what do you think the risks are in this outbreak? How serious do you think it is? You mentioned the concern about human-to-human, but what is the biggest concern to you?

DR MICHAEL O’LEARY: So, you know if the virus remains a primarily animal virus, then the risks to humans, would be expected, I think, to remain rare and sporadic, just as they have been. You know, this is a different virus from H5N1. It may ultimately act differently, but H5N1 has been the case 16 years and is still just the occasional, sporadic case, because it’s effectively an animal virus that once in a while, manages to jump to a human. So the situation changes, as I say, if the virus changes in a way that human-to-human transmission is possible, that’s a separate change from the one that has taken place already. You know, we can’t predict, there’s no way to predict, but it would really require now a separate mutation from the one we’ve seen, because there isn’t any evidence of that happening so far…

 WHO: Human infection with influenza A(H7N9) virus: updates
WHO has enhanced its reporting on A(H7N9) and is issuing risk assessments and other information as below:
– Weekly report: 16 April 2013 – Report 2 – data in WHO/HQ as of 16 April 2013, 13:26 GMT+1 pdf, 464kb
Number of confirmed human cases for avian influenza A(H7N9) reported to WHO: geographical location; cumulative number; epidemiological curve.
– Standardization of the influenza A(H7N9) virus terminology as of 16 April 2013
pdf, 92kb