The Ministry of Health confirmed Brazil’s first suspected human case of avian influenza on Wednesday evening (17) local time.
It is a 61-year-old man, an employee of a municipal park in Vitória, where one of the three birds tested positive for the disease in Espírito Santo was found.
According to health surveillance protocol, the patient has mild flu-like symptoms and is in isolation and being monitored by municipal health teams.
Samples from the suspected patient and 32 other people working in the park are currently being analyzed by the Espírito Santo Central Health Laboratory (Lacen).
After analysis, the samples will also be sent to Fiocruz, the state’s reference laboratory, and should be treated in biosafety areas NB-3.
The Ministry of Health reiterated that there are no officially confirmed human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) in Brazil.
Transmission of the disease occurs through contact with sick, live, or dead birds.
As has been observed worldwide, the virus is not easily transmissible to humans, and when it does occur, human-to-human transmission is usually not sustained.
The cases involving the infected birds do not affect Brazil’s status as a country free of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), and other World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) member countries should not impose bans on international trade in Brazilian poultry products.
This is the first time that cases of avian influenza have occurred in Brazil.
The infected animals are not part of the Brazilian industrial system, meaning the cases do not affect poultry and eggs available in supermarkets and the population’s food security, stresses the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA).
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