Scientists Warn of Potential Human Infection Risk as Bird Flu Mutates

A recent discovery of a bird flu strain, known as H5N1, evolving to better infect human cells has caused alarm among scientists. Last week, the virus claimed the life of an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Prey Veng province in Cambodia, the first victim of H5N1 since 2023. Her father has tested positive for the virus but has not yet developed symptoms. Dr Erik Karlsson, who led the team at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia that decoded the genetic sequence of the girl’s virus, said that there were “some indications” that the virus had gone through a human and picked up new mutations before infecting the girl. He warned that it differed from that taken from birds, and urged “the utmost concern” in response to the finding. Although the virus has yet to fully adapt to humans and is still fundamentally a bird virus, Dr Karlsson cautioned that it could cause a major outbreak if it mutated to bind to a receptor found on cells in the nose. Genetic testing revealed that the girl had caught the 2.3.2.1c strain of H5N1, which is endemic to wild birds and poultry in Cambodia and differs from the 2.3.4.4b type that has spread rapidly around the world and infected many birds and mammals. Dr Karlsson called on the world to keep monitoring the virus, saying: “Something may be happening here in Cambodia and something may be happening on the other side of the world in South America, but we don’t really know what could cause the problem tomorrow.” H5N1 has a human mortality rate of around 50 percent and there have only been around 870 cases among people globally. The 2.3.4.4b strain has caused devastation to the world’s bird population over the past year.