China confirms world’s first human case of H10N3 bird flu but says it’s highly unlikely to spread widely among people

China reported the world's first human infection of the H10N3 bird flu strain on Tuesday but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low.

A 41-year-old man was admitted to a hospital with fever symptoms in the eastern city of Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said in an online statement.

"The risk of large-scale spread is extremely low," the NHC said, adding that the man was in a stable condition and his close contacts had reported no "abnormalities."

No information was provided about ho the man contracted the illness.

It described H10N3 as low pathogenic -- less likely to cause death or severe illness -- in birds.

The NHC said there had been no human cases of H10N3 previously reported in the world.