Monitoring outbreak of influenza H9N2 in China, ready for any exigency: India

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, November 24

India is prepared for any health exigency with the government closely monitoring the reported outbreak of influenza H9N2 cases and clusters of respiratory illness in children in northern China.

The Union Health Ministry on Friday said there was low risk to India from both the avian influenza cases reported from China as well as the clusters of respiratory illness.

“India is prepared for any kind of public health exigency,” said ministry officials.

A preparatory meeting, chaired by the Director General, Health Services, was recently held to discuss measures against human cases of avian influenza against the backdrop of a human case of H9N2 (avian influenza virus) in October 2023 in China that was reported to the World Health Organisation.

“The overall risk assessment by the WHO indicates a low probability of human-to-human spread and low-case fatality rate among human cases of H9N2 reported to the WHO so far. The need for strengthening surveillance among human, animal husbandry and wildlife sectors and improving coordination was recognised,” the ministry said. Based on the currently available information, an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases in China has been reported in the past few weeks. The usual causes of respiratory illness in children have been implicated and there has been no identification of an unusual pathogen or any unexpected clinical manifestation.

The government said India was embarking on a “one health” approach to adopt a holistic and integrated roadmap towards addressing such public health issues and there had been significant strengthening of health infrastructure, especially since the Covid pandemic.

The ministry said India’s surveillance and detection networks under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme had rich experience of dealing with challenging health situations during the Covid pandemic.

On November 13, the Chinese authorities reported an increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases attributing the increase to the lifting of Covid restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19).

Since mid-October, northern China has reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared to the same period in the previous three years.