According to a March 16th posting on ProMED-Mail, authorities in China have diagnosed a case of H5N1 influenza in a 52-year-old woman in Jiangsu Province. No details were provided on her condition although the report noted recent contact with live poultry.
Sequencing of the isolate confirmed H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b common to the current panornitic in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This is the second human case in 2023 following a diagnosis of H5N1 in a child living in Ecuador. The isolate in China was different from the H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1c that has circulated in Cambodia among contacts with chickens for two years.