RUSSIA said yesterday its scientists had detected the first case of transmission of the H5N8 strain of avian flu to humans and had alerted the World Health Organisation.
In televised remarks, the head of Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said scientists at the Vektor laboratory had isolated the strain’s genetic material from seven workers at a poultry farm in southern Russia, where an outbreak was recorded among the birds in December.