China reports man hospitalized with bird flu

China reported Thursday that a man has been hospitalized with bird flu, according to The New York Times.

The man tested positive for the H5N6 strain of avian flu on July 6 after experiencing a fever, Chinese state media reported. He is currently in the hospital in the city of Bazhong.

Officials “activated an emergency response and sterilized the area,” local media reported, according to the Times.

It is not clear if the 55-year-old man handled poultry as part of his job, as the strand of the virus is known to be found in poultry flocks or in dead birds.

There have been 32 cases of the H5N6 virus and 19 deaths in the Western Pacific Region since 2014, the World Health Organization said in a report last week.

The news comes after the first cases of H5N8 avian influenza in Russia were found earlier this year.

“Whenever avian influenza viruses are circulating in poultry, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments. Therefore, sporadic human cases are not unexpected,” the World Health Organization said.

Anna Popova, Russia’s public health chief, said earlier this year that the virus “is not transmitted from person to person. But only time will tell how soon future mutations will allow it to overcome this barrier.”

“The discovery of this strain now gives us all, the whole world, time to prepare for possible mutations and the possibility to react in a timely way and develop test systems and vaccines,” she said.