Doesn’t sound good! From Bloomberg Asia:

Seven Indonesian Bird Flu Cases Linked to Patients (Update1)

May 23 (Bloomberg) — All seven people infected with bird flu in a cluster of Indonesian cases can be linked to other patients, according to disease trackers investigating possible human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus.

A team of international experts has been unable to find animals that might have infected the people, the World Health Organization said in a statement today. In one case, a 10-year- old boy who caught the virus from his aunt may have passed it to his father, the first time officials have seen evidence of a three-person chain of infection, an agency spokeswoman said. Six of the seven people have died.

Almost all of the 218 cases of H5N1 infections confirmed by the WHO since late 2003 can be traced to direct contact with sick or dead birds. Strong evidence of human-to-human transmission may prompt the global health agency to convene a panel of experts and consider raising the pandemic alert level, said Maria Cheng, an agency spokeswoman.

“Considering the evidence and the size of the cluster, it’s a possibility,” Cheng said in a telephone interview. “It depends on what we’re dealing with in Indonesia. It’s an evolving situation.”

The caveat is that they haven’t identified a mutation of the virus that would show it had gained any DNA from pigs, which could make it more easily transmissible to people, and person-to-person. Direct, long-period contact with the victims seems to be the factor in these cases. Constant vigilance is the watchword . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: H5N1, Avian Flu, Indonesia, Human to Human Transmission, WHO

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