Via CIDRAP, Lisa Schnirring has a must-read: Chinese doctors publish first H7N9 case report. Click through for the full article and links to the original report. Excerpt:
Doctors from China today published the first case report of a patient infected with the H7N9 avian influenza virus, a 52-year-old woman from Shanghai who was admitted to the hospital late in her illness and died without having received antiviral treatment.
The team from Fudan University's Huashan Hospital, where the woman was seen in the emergency department, was hospitalized, and died, described their findings today in an online edition of Emerging Microbes and Infections. The woman's death was first reported on Apr 4.
She experienced a sudden onset of chills and fever on Mar 27 and was seen in the emergency department the next day. The patient had rough breath sounds and was given antibiotics.
A few days later she sought care at the facility again, at which point she still had a fever but no cough or shortness of breath. Radiographs showed small patchy shadows in the lower lobe of her right lung, and doctors treated her with intravenous antibiotics for 3 days.
Her condition quickly worsened, and she went to the emergency department again, this time with respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath. After tests showed hypoxia and computed tomography demonstrated evidence of pneumonia, the woman's medical team suspected severe flu with respiratory distress, intubated the patient, and placed her on mechanical ventilation.
Despite those measures and treatment with methylprednisolone, antibiotics, and immune globulin treatment, her condition continued to deteriorate and she died on Apr 3. Doctors sent respiratory samples to the Chinese Center for Disease Control, where tests detected the H7N9 virus.
An investigation into the source of her infection found no clear history of contact with livestock or poultry, through the virus was detected in poultry at a local market. "The most likely source of the virus in this case seems to be from the environment or food contaminated with this novel virus," the group wrote.
