Highly contagious bird flu outbreak detected in Netherlands: 3 things to know

Officials in the Netherlands confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu identified on a duck farm in Biddinghuizen on Dec. 7, according to a report from Reuters.

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Here are three things to know.

1. The outbreak resulted in the death of 40 birds and subsequent culling of nearly 16,000.

2. The H5N6 subtype identified in the Netherlands was not associated with the Asian zoonotic H5N6, which has been found in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. However, it was associated with the H5N8 virus, which led to the death or killing of millions of birds in an outbreak in Western Europe in 2016.

3. Human infections with bird viruses occur when enough of the virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth. Early symptoms of avian flu are comparable to those of seasonal flu. A strain of avian influenza dubbed H7N9 has infected more than 450 people in China since October.

More articles on infection control: 
Study: Improved hand hygiene helped end bacterial outbreak in Swiss NICU 
Wearing long sleeves during OR patient skin prep may reduce airborne contaminants 
Syracuse mumps outbreak tops 50 cases

  

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