World Health Organisation issues warning over outbreak of swine flu strain which caused 2009 pandemic

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning over outbreaks of swine and avian flu in multiple countries.

The health body said cases of swine flu had been detected in Spain and Brazil, while cases of avian flu being transmitted to humans had occurred in Cambodia and China.

The organisation raised fears over potential further spread of the avian virus between humans during the Lunar New Year celebrations in China this week.

Cases of swine flu, which caused a global pandemic in 2009, have been detected in Spain and Brazil.

In Brazil, the case found had no history of exposure to pigs. It is the ninth case of a human infection with a swine variant virus reported in the state of Paraná, Brazil, since 2015.

WHO said the Spanish case had been found in Lleida, in the Cataluña autonomous community of Spain, in a man who worked on a pig farm.

"Based on the currently available information, no ongoing community transmission has been identified in this case,” the WHO said in a statement. “Thus, the risk of international disease spread through humans and/or community-level spread among humans is low.”

The swine flu pandemic of 2009 began in the UK when the first cases were detected in Scotland. Almost 400 people died across the UK in the outbreak.

In November, a different strain of influenza – A(H1N2) – known as “pig flu” was found in a human being, the first detection of the virus in a human in the UK. The infection was detected in a routine flu screening test at a GP surgery in North Yorkshire.