Experts think the victim contracted the lethal virus after a visit to a wet market where live birds were sold

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/bird-flu-h3n8-death-china/

BySarah Newey, GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, IN BANGKOK11 April 2023 • 4:27pm

A 56-year-old woman in China has died after contracting H3N8 bird flu, the first known fatality in a human from this strain of avian influenza. 

While H3N8 is “one of the most frequently found” subtypes of flu found in birds, the woman is only the third person known to have caught the virus and the first to have died.

Two young boys were infected with the same virus in unrelated cases in China last year, but both survived. 

According to a World Health Organization report, the woman developed symptoms in late February and died on March 16. She had “multiple underlying conditions” and is thought to have caught the virus at a wet market, where scientists tracing her exposure collected samples positive for H3N8. 

The infection is unrelated to the H5N1 bird flu pandemic that has devastated poultry and wild bird populations around the world in the last 18 months and has spread to mammals including foxes, sea lions and even domestic cats.

There is also no evidence the H3N8 can be spread person to person. “No close contacts of the case developed an infection or symptoms of illness at the time of reporting,” said the WHO.

While H3N8 is less dangerous for both wild birds and domestic poultry than H5N1, “causing minimal to no sign of disease”, it has also been detected in various mammals before – including horses and dogs. 

In 2011, there was an outbreak of H3N8 among harbour seals in New England, US that killed 162 animals. 

https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/a47c5634-580f-4221-bf6f-736dfe6c40b4.html?i=0&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fglobal-health%2Fscience-and-disease%2Fbird-flu-h3n8-death-china%2F&channel=globalhealth&id=a47c5634-580f-4221-bf6f-736dfe6c40b4&isapp=false&isregistered=false&issubscribed=false&truncated=false&lt=false

There are many types of avian influenza, with the viruses described by two different proteins – hemagglutinin and neuraminidase (the H and N in the naming sequence). To date, scientists have identified 18 different subtypes of the former, and 11 of the latter, in circulation.

Just six of these (H5, H6, H7, H8, H9, and H10 viruses) have so far infected humans, with H5N1 and H7N9 responsible for the bulk of known cases. 

“H3N8 viruses were first detected in wild birds in the 1960s and have been detected in other animals,” the US CDC said in a statement on Monday. “Avian influenza H3N8 viruses have been sporadically detected in poultry in China and some have been found to be genetically closely related to the human cases reported in 2022”.

For now, the H5N1 bird flu pandemic remains the greater concern as regards the risk to humans.

The sheer number of cases in birds and increasing transmission in (and potentially between) mammals – including mink, otters and even pet cats – increases the opportunity for the virus to mutate and become able to spread between people.

“If transmission between mammals have started, the virus has changed and this could increase the risk for human health,” Dr Pablo Plaza, an expert in veterinary public health and epidemiology at the National University of Comahue in Argentina, and co-author of the first pre-print describing the sea lion outbreak in Peru, told the Telegraph earlier this year.

“Until now, this risk seems to be low – however, we must be alert since [the] virus is changing all the time. Several changes in the virus are needed to adapt to human-human transmission, so hopefully they will not occur,” he added.

After crawling into the tunnel for the first time, Heinrich Frank found giant scratch marks all over the walls.

JAMES FELTON

https://www.iflscience.com/these-giant-caves-were-not-made-by-geological-processes-or-humans-68236

Senior Staff Writer

PublishedApril 11, 2023

1Comment

660Shares

Around the turn of the century, a number of huge tunnels were discovered in South America. After investigation, the scientists who discovered them found that they are not made by any humans, nor geological process.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.567.2_en.html#goog_293674868

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.567.2_en.html#goog_1624176717

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.567.2_en.html#goog_893607595Top Stories01:0901:12New Treasures Identified In The Sunken Roman CityOf Baiae

Professor of geology, Heinrich Frank, spotted a strange hole embedded in a hill at a construction site as he passed it on the highway, according to Discover. Frank returned to the tunnel, which had been uncovered during excavation, and crawled inside. 

The tunnel was 4.5 meters (15 feet) long. Frank could tell that the tunnel was not made by geological forces, but nothing beyond that. At the end of the tunnel was a much bigger clue, that you probably still don’t want to find in a tunnel you’ve just voluntarily crawled into: a collection of giant claw marks on the ceiling.

“There’s no geological process in the world that produces long tunnels with a circular or elliptical cross-section, which branch and rise and fall, with claw marks on the walls,” Frank told Discover, adding he’s “seen dozens of caves that have inorganic origins, and in these cases, it’s very clear that digging animals had no role in their creation.”

Scratch marks on the walls. Image courtesy of Heinrich Frank.

The tunnel, along with many others that he and others discovered in Brazil and Argentina, are thought to be made by extinct megafauna. In Frank’s case it was likely giant sloths that made the tunnels, 8-10,000 years ago. These creatures are not like the sloths of today, with the primary difference being they were around the size of an African elephant.

In the Rio Grande do Sul area, Frank and his team found over 1,500 tunnels made by the beasts, with the longest stretching for 609 meters (2,000 feet) and standing at 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall. It was likely carved out by teams of sloths over several generations.

Despite their size, there is evidence that humans may have hunted giant sloths. Two hundred fossilized footprints of sloths and humans found in Utah were analyzed by a team in a 2018 study, finding them to be evidence that humans “actively stalked and/or harassed sloths, if not hunted them.”

“It is possible that the behavior was playful, but human interactions with sloths are probably better interpreted in the context of stalking and/or hunting,” the palaeontologists wrote. “Sloths would have been formidable prey. Their strong arms and sharp claws gave them a lethal reach and clear advantage in close-quarter encounters.”

I just signed a petition with the gender justice organization UltraViolet to call on the Biden administration to protect access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Outrageously, a Donald Trump-appointed federal judge just sided with anti-abortion extremists and ruled to disrupt the sale of mifepristone–in spite of scientific consensus that the pill is safe to use.

Mifepristone, a drug that can be used along with misoprostol to terminate pregnancy, was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. Despite its established record of efficacy and safety, anti-abortion extremists are hellbent on getting rid of it as they did Roe v. Wade.

And if they win, the effect will be devastating for all of us, not just those living in red states.

Every reputable medical organization, including American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA), has predicted that the country’s maternal mortality crisis will worsen without access to abortion care, including medication abortion.

ADD YOUR VOICE:Name*

• Name is required.

Email address*ZIP Code*Mobile phone

 I’d like to subscribe to text message updates from UltraViolet, UV Action and/or UV PAC.

Add a comment +Sign Petition

You will receive periodic updates about UltraViolet and related campaigns. You may unsubscribe at any time. Here’s our privacy policy

The Biden Administration must step in to protect medication abortion!

As we expected, a Donald Trump-appointed federal judge just ruled in favor of anti-abortion extremists to disrupt the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Sign the petition to urge the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure access to the FDA approved medication, mifepristone, and to take all necessary action to protect patients and providers.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Medication abortion care is a safe, effective, non-invasive option for ending an early pregnancy. Despite its 20-year track record of safety, an extreme anti-abortion judge has ruled in favor of anti-abortion idealogues and is seeking to impose a national ban on this medication. His decision ignores the evidence and seeks to remove FDA approved medication from the market. If this decision stands, it will severely limit options for safe, non-invasive early abortions, even in states where abortion is legal. This is judicial interference at its most extreme. We can’t allow anti-abortion politicians or judges to interfere with our freedom to make decisions about our health and lives.

Sign this petition to urge the Biden-Harris administration to take immediate action to ensure access to medication abortion.