Ecuador reported the first case of avian flu in humans on Tuesday, January 10, a few weeks after the declaration of a health emergency in November in the country and the detection of this disease in poultry farms.
"The first case of influenza A-H5
(bird flu)
has been confirmed in a nine-year-old girl in the province of Bolivar"
, in the heart of the Andes, the Ministry of Health said in a press release.
“We suspect that the infection was transmitted by direct contact with birds carrying the virus
,” he added.
Ecuador declared a 90-day health emergency on November 30 after the detection of an outbreak of avian flu in poultry farms in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, bordering that of Bolivar, where an outbreak was detected Monday.
The ministry stressed that
“so far, no other human cases have been reported”
.
The poultry sector in Ecuador represents 263 million chickens and 16 million laying hens.
Each year, it generates some 1.8 billion dollars, for 300,000 jobs.
