🗞️Child's Return from India Brings First H5N1 Case to Australia

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In a child returning from abroad, Australia has seen the first detection of a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu.The report is released at the same time that Victorian authorities have confirmed that a bird flu outbreak on an egg farm is actually a highly pathogenic strain rather than the H5N1 strain that is causing widespread concern.On Wednesday, the Victorian health department announced that a child who had just returned from India to Australia had tested positive for the H5N1 virus. After experiencing a "severe infection," the child, who arrived in Australia in March, has recovered fully, and contact tracing has revealed no additional cases of avian influenza.Through the state's disease surveillance system, which identifies novel or worrisome flu virus strains through additional testing of positive influenza cases, the virus was discovered.

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It eliminates Australia's distinction as the only continent where no H5N1 case in a bird or mammal has been confirmed. Australia has not yet reported any cases of the H5N1 strain in birds.Following several chicken deaths, Agriculture Victoria earlier revealed that the avian influenza virus was found at an egg farm close to Meredith in western Victoria. During an appearance on ABC Country Hour on Wednesday, Victorian Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Graeme Cooke revealed that the variant found was H7N7, a high pathogenicity (HPAI) strain of avian influenza that has previously been found in Australia, most notably in Victoria in 2020 and 2021.

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