Health Ministry closely monitoring respiratory illness outbreak in China

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on [specific date], announced that it is closely monitoring the outbreak of H9N2 avian influenza and clusters of respiratory diseases in children in China.

“There is a low risk to India from both the avian influenza case reported from China as well as clusters of respiratory illness,” the ministry said in an official statement.

The ministry also announced that it is prepared for any kind of exigency that may emerge from the current situation.

The statement comes after ProMed, a publicly available global infectious disease surveillance system, issued an alert over the 'undiagnosed pneumonia' in children.

A meeting was recently held under the Chairmanship of the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to discuss the preparedness measures against human cases of Avian Influenza in the country against the backdrop of a human case of H9N2 in China that was reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“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 WHO so far,” the official statement said.

Citing news reports from local media, the World Health Organisation had requested additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from these reported outbreaks on Thursday.