The WHO reported that a 4-year-old in West Bengal was diagnosed with bird flu. He entered the hospital at the end of January 2024 and was admitted to intensive care with acute respiratory problems. The child had severe difficulty breathing, high fever, and abdominal cramps. The virus diagnosed by the swab sample is the H9N2: the child would have contracted it from the poultry present near his home. The child was discharged from the hospital on May 1 with oxygen support. The WHO reported that the virus is contracted directly from animals because it has not yet acquired the ability to transmit from man to man. To prevent infection it is important to minimize contact with animals and environments contaminated by their feces.
This is the second human case of H9N2 reported in India. The first was in 2019.
