This past week authorities in Guangdong Province confirmed a single case of H5N6 strain avian influenza in a patient aged 53-years. This is the second confirmed case in the Province over the past month.
H5N6 avian influenza has become the predominant strain among chickens in Southeastern China since emergence in 2008, replacing H5N1. The H5N6 strain is seldom transmitted to humans with only 25 cases reported worldwide in the past nine months suggesting specific susceptibility to the virus among those affected.