H7N9 Update: Fourteen Cases and Four Deaths

According to reports from Weibo, AFP, and Xinhua, the case count has increased again. Total case count is 14, with four deaths.

Chinese media giant Xinhua reported ten confirmed cases in the afternoon of April 4 in China, the tenth being a 64-year-old male from Huzhou city. He was admitted to the hospital on March 31. According to Xinhua, this man had contact with 55 people who are being monitored for symptoms of the virus.

The AFP reported an eleventh case in Shanghai, at about 8am EDT. Previously reported on Weibo, this patient was a 48-year-old poultry worker from the Jiangsu province. He died on April 4. His contacts are also being monitored, though no symptoms have been reported.

Chinese local media just confirmed three additional cases in Shanghai.

Again, here is the timeline so far:

On March 31, two deaths and one case were reported from Shanghai and Anhui respectively. According to Chinese media, the onset of illness occurred around February 19 and February 27. These patients died on February 27 and March 4. Four additional cases were reported in Jiangsu on April 2. According to local media, the onset of illness occurred between March 19 and March 21. The eighth reported case, a 38-year-old male cook, was from Jiangsu, with an onset of illness around March 7. The case was relocated to Zhejiang for treatment and died on March 27. The ninth reported case, a 67-year-old male, also in Zhejiang, had onset of fever and cough on March 25. On April 2, this case was confirmed H7N9 positive by the Zhejiang Province CDC. Xinhua reported the tenth case on April 4 (afternoon in China). This patient, a 64-year-old man, reportedly became ill on March 29 and is now in a Huzhou hospital. The AFP report brings us to case number eleven and death number 4. Rumors of three additional cases, in Shanghai, were posted to Weibo and were confirmed recently by Shanghai city officials, also on Weibo.

This brings the count to six cases in Shanghai and fourth deaths. One of these new Shanghai cases reported to be a child with a mild infection.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has been collecting samples from pigeons in a market in the Songjiang District of Shanghai. According to Xinhua, the national avian flu reference laboratory has found a strain of H7N9 that is “highly congenetic” with the H7N9 strains found in the people infected thus far. 

Related Posts