MSNBC/Associated Press: WHO: Bird flu may pass between humans

[Guest guest]

>

>WHO: Bird flu may pass between humans

>Two sisters from Vietnam who died of bird flu

>may have caught the disease from their brother,

>the World Health Organization said on Sunday.

>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4034127/

>

The Associated Press

Updated: 9:38 p.m. ET Feb. 01, 2004

 

HANOI, Vietnam - Two Vietnamese sisters who died

from bird flu may have caught the disease from

their brother, which would be the first known

case involving human-to-human transmission in the

outbreak now sweeping Asia, the World Health

Organization said Sunday.

 

The source of the sisters' infection has not

been identified, but investigations have failed

to find a specific event, such as contact with

sick poultry, or an environmental source to

explain the cases, WHO spokesman Bob Dietz said

in Hanoi.

 

" Limited human-to-human transmission from the

brother to his sisters is one possible

explanation, " he said.

 

No other cases of people catching the virus from

other people have been suspected anywhere else.

 

On Wednesday, when Vietnamese officials announced

the death of the two sisters, the director of

Vietnam's Institute of Clinical Research in

Tropical Medicine said the victims had helped

their brother handle chickens during preparations

for a wedding reception.

 

" The man helped to put the chickens into the

cages while the sisters slaughtered the chickens.

It's likely that they got the virus from the sick

chickens, " Le Dang Ha said at the time.

 

But on Sunday, WHO said investigations could not

link the sisters with any sick chickens.

 

Bird flu has killed millions of chickens in 10

Asian countries and jumped to humans in Thailand

and Vietnam, killing at least 10 people.

 

On Sunday, China reported five more suspected

cases in birds, including one in its remote

northwest - underlining the speed with which the

disease seems to be spreading across the vast

country.

 

Most striking among the new suspected cases was

one in Xinjiang, since it is more than 1,000

miles from the southern region of Guangxi, where

China's first case of bird flu was confirmed last

week.

 

China has no reported cases of bird flu in humans.

 

China has closed poultry markets and processing

factories in bird flu-affected areas shortly

after WHO warned that Beijing's chances to

contain the disease may be dwindling.

 

WHO called on China to share more information

about the disease, step up monitoring for

possible human cases and take precautions so

workers slaughtering birds are not infected.

 

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization

appealed for international aid for Asian farmers,

saying they may otherwise resist slaughtering

their flocks, a crucial measure in stamping out

the disease and preventing a human outbreak.

 

" We are ... concerned that mass culling is not

taking place at a speed we consider absolutely

necessary to contain the virus, " said Hans

Wagner, an FAO animal production and health

officer.

 

Limited human-to-human transmission of the virus

is not the real danger. What experts fear is the

virus mutating into a form that passes easily

between people - a pandemic strain that is a

hybrid of the bird virus and a normal human

influenza variety.

 

There is no evidence that a new strain has

emerged, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.

Results from tests comparing the genetic makeup

of the virus found in the two Vietnamese sisters

with that found in other people are expected from

Hong Kong in several days, she said.

 

" This may be an isolated incident. These were

very close contacts, family members, " she said.

" We wouldn't be surprised if we saw more of these

cases, especially where you cannot trace the

contacts back to chickens. "

 

The two women, ages 30 and 23, from Vietnam's

northern Thai Binh province became sick after

attending their brother's wedding reception.

Their 31-year-old brother died shortly afterward

but his body was cremated, so no samples were

available to determine whether he had bird flu.

 

The sisters died Jan. 23. Their sister-in-law

also was hospitalized with an unidentified

respiratory illness but she recovered.

 

Bird flu spread between humans in a 1997 outbreak

in Hong Kong that killed six people.

 

Then, the virus passed from infected people to

health workers but soon lost its punch and failed

to transmit further. Symptoms were very mild or

nonexistent in those who caught it from patients

rather than birds.

 

The six who died in 1997 all contracted the virus

from chickens. All cases of human-to-human

transmission recovered, raising doubts about

whether the Vietnamese sisters caught the lethal

strain from their brother.

 

Experts believe Hong Kong may have averted a

global pandemic that year by slaughtering its

entire chicken population in three days.

 

The U.N. health agency welcomed tests showing

that bird flu has been in Asia since at least

April, saying the virus has not succeeded in

infecting humans on a large scale despite having

many more months of opportunity than originally

believed.

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