Wednesday 19 February 2014

H7N9 human case #1 - 1-year ago...

A year ago, on the 18-Feb-2013, the first human case of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection started showing signs of an illness; coughing with sputum. 

That person was an 87-year old retired male with hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). By the time he presented a week later he had fever and shortness of breath. He sadly died of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

No other cases of infection were noted to have resulted. 

He was treated with oseltamivir, an antiviral flu drug to which H7N9 is generally susceptible, 7-days after he became ill. He was in hospital for 6-days. 

His infection, along with those of 2 others, were reported to the World Health Organization on 31-March (2)


  1. NEJM Article on First 3 human cases of H7N9.
    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1304459
  2. WHO Overview. 31-05-2013.
    http://www.who.int/influenza/human_animal_interface/influenza_h7n9/WHO_H7N9_review_31May13.pdf?ua=1

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