What is H10N3 strain of bird flu?

China, on Tuesday, reported the first human infection case of the
H10N3 strain of the bird flu virus, noting, although, that the risk of it
spreading among people was low.

The 41-year-old patient, who was admitted to a hospital in eastern
China’s Zhenjiang, located in the Jiangsu province on April 28, was diagnosed
with H10N3 exactly a month later, and is currently in a stable condition, as
per various news reports.

Also read: China records world’s first case of H10N3 bird flu in humans

A low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the bird flu
virus, as per the National Health Commission (NHC) of China, globally there have
been no other recorded cases of the H10N3 variant infecting humans till date.

There exist several other variants of the bird flu, including H7N9,
which was known to have caused the last epidemic of bird flu in China in 2016
and 2017. It also has infected 1,688 and killed 616 people since 2013.

Also read: Why scientists are concerned about leaks at biolabs

The first known case of avian influenza infecting humans occurred in
1918 through the Spanish Flu Epidemic, leading to the death of about 50 million
people, as per a report by National Centre of Biotechnology Information, under
the US National Library of Medicine.

Since the first occurrence, three other Avian influenza-led pandemics have
taken place: H2N2 in 1957, also known as Asian Flu, H3N2 in 1968, also known as
Hong Kong Flu, and H1N1 in 2009, known as Swine Flu.