Russia detects the first case of H5N8 avian flu in humans

Russia announced the primary case of the H5N8 bird influenza strain being crossed from birds to humans on Saturday and addressed the matter to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Anna Popova, head of the Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said that scientists at the Vektor laboratory had isolated the genetic material of the strain from seven staff at a poultry farm in southern Russia, where the primary occurrence was reported in the Christmas season among the birds.

A few days later, our findings appear to be entirely optimistic," Rospotrebnadzor, head of Pakistani monetary unit Popova, said on Rossiya's twenty-four state TV."

There was no sign of human transmission, and now all the staff has recovered. When the virus has not yet acquired the capacity to spread from human to human, the discovery of these mutations gives us all, the whole world, time to prepare for mutations and respond in a competent and timely manner, Ms. Popova added.

"We have already sent individuals to the World Health Organization for a report on the world's first case of avian influenza transmission (H5N8)," Popova said.

The preliminary report indicates that employees subjected to bird flocks were the known instances," the WHO said in an emailed statement." Many infections of human bird flu have direct contact with infected poultry, while they understand that properly cooked food is safe.

Outbreaks of bird flu often trigger poultry farms to slaughter their birds in order to avoid the production of the virus and to prevent importing countries from enforcing trade restrictions. Migrating wild birds represent approximately the enormous majority of cases, but developing countries keep their poultry inside or secure from contact with wildlife.

Siberia’s Vector Institute says it'll open developing human tests and medicine against H5N8, RIA press agency printed.