18 December 2013 (09:28 UTC-07 Tango)/14 Safar 1435/27 Azar 1392/16 Jia-Zi (11th month) 4711

“We have gotten China’s confirmation that a Chinese woman has died from an H10N8 avian flu infection. We will evaluate whether the strain should be listed as a notifiable infectious disease.”-Chou Jih-haw, Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control

A so called “weak” influenza A has infected and killed a human for the first time.  The H10N8 Duck flu is the new culprit.  (A/Duck/Guangdong/E1/2012)

It happened in Hong Kong, China.  A 73 years old woman became ill back in November, after going to a live poultry market.  She died on 06 December.

Her symptoms were severe pneumonia, high blood pressure, neuromuscular disorder, heart attack and finally, respiratory failure.  Local health officials say none of her relatives are sick.   They also point out that the 73 years old woman was already dealing with other health problems.

Unlike previous concerns about past year’s influenza outbreaks, global health official apparently didn’t see this one coming.

Tashiro Masato, with Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases, called the virus “weak” after they studied the new strain.  However, with the first human death he now says closer attention needs to be paid.

H10N8 was sequenced and reported in January of last year.  It is an evolution of an influenza that up ’till now only sickened water birds.  It is a combination of Eurasian and North American strains.

There are reports that H10N8 was first noticed back in 2007, in a water sample taken from Dongting Lake.  That investigation concluded that the then new H10N8 had trouble infecting land birds (like chickens), but for some reason incubated very well inside the lungs of mice.

Influenza is a fast evolving RNA virus, which is the real reason why vaccines don’t work.