MADRID, May 31. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the person-to-person transmission of an outbreak of avian flu (H5N1) detected in mid-May this year in the UK as “low”.

In the middle of that month, the UK and Northern Ireland notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of the detection of avian influenza A(H5) virus in a poultry worker on a farm in the UK where birds in the pen were infected with the avian influenza virus (HPAI). ) A(H5N1) which is highly pathogenic.

Another detection was reported of a second person carrying out a culling operation on the farm. Both detections were later confirmed by additional testing as A(H5N1). Both cases were asymptomatic and were detected as part of an ongoing follow-up study of asymptomatic workers exposed to poultry infected with bird flu.

All workers on this farm and their contacts have been identified; none of the contacts reported symptoms, and no other cases of influenza have been identified. England’s Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) found no evidence of person-to-person transmission.

Based on available information, WHO considers this to be “sporadic” detection of avian influenza virus between humans with no evidence of person-to-person transmission to date. “As such, the possibility of international spread of the disease through humans is considered low,” the UN health agency stressed.

Given the widespread distribution in poultry and the evolving nature of influenza viruses, WHO emphasizes the importance of global surveillance to detect virological, epidemiological and clinical changes associated with circulating influenza viruses that may affect human (or animal) health.