China confirms human-to-human bird flu transmission
Associated Press
Last update: April 7, 2008 - 6:18 PM
LONDON - Chinese health officials have confirmed that a father caught
bird flu from his son last December, according to a re****t released
Tuesday.
Human-to-human transmission of bird flu has happened about a dozen
times in the past, in countries including Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam,
and Turkey. In nearly every case, transmission has occurred among
blood relatives who have been in close contact, and the virus has not
spread into the wider community.
In the case in China, a 52-year-old man and his 24-year-old son in
Jiangsu province were diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu within a week of
each other last December. At the time, officials from the World Health
Organization said they could not rule out the possibility of human-to-
human transmission.
After the son died, his father was treated with antivirals and
participated in an H5N1 vaccine trial. He survived.
The son's only exposure to bird flu was at a poultry market, while the
father apparently had no direct exposure to sick birds. His only known
exposure to bird flu was close contact with his ill son.
"Limited, non-sustained person to person transmission of H5N1 virus
probably occurred in this family cluster," wrote researchers at
Beijing's Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the
medical journal, The Lancet.
"There is no indication from this data that we are any nearer to a
pandemic," said Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University
of Reading. Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, and
experts think most cases are linked to close contact with infected
birds.
Health officials monitor every potential case of human to human
transmission with particular concern to see if the virus might have
mutated into a form that is more easily spread. So far, that has not
happened.
Many flu experts worry that H5N1 will spark a pandemic, potentially
killing millions worldwide. But despite circulating widely in Asia and
beyond since late 2003, the virus only rarely infects humans. As of
April 3, WHO re****ted 378 cases and 238 deaths worldwide.
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