WHO concerned over bird flu

2004-09-28 11:39

Geneva - The World Health Organisation on Tuesday confirmed that it was examining a "probable" first full case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in Thailand.

However a WHO spokesperson said the case appeared to have been confined to the immediate environment of the victims, a mother and her daughter.

"We agree that it's a probable human-to-human case," WHO spokesperson Dick Thompson said.

"It raises our concern, that's for sure, but it's not unexpected," he added.

Pranee Krongkaew, 26, died eight days ago and probably caught the disease while caring for her sick 11-year-old daughter, officials in Thailand said on Tuesday. The girl also died this month from suspected bird flu.

'Dead end'

"What we're more concerned about is if there were efficient transmission of the virus from human to human," Thompson said.

"Right now the preliminary information seems to be that this may have come to a dead end in this village," he added.

Thompson said that in a close-knit family, the mother might also have been exposed to the same sources of the disease as her daughter.

More information was being sought on the case, including an analysis of the genes in the virus.

"That's underway right now so we should know more within a few days," Thompson said.

A recent study had found that health care workers in Hong Kong had been infected with the most virulent strain of bird flu, H5N1, from patients they were caring for during an outbreak there in 1997, according to the WHO.

But they had not reported outward symptoms of the illness.

Transmission in the past

"There has been transmission in the past without illness," Thompson said.

Thompson praised Thai authorities for openly exchanging information.

"We would expect to see human to human to human transmission, but it's important that clusters, like these family clusters, be identified earlier," he said.

Outbreaks of bird flu in Asia this year and in 2003 have raised fears that the virus could mutate into a more virulent and infectious form, potentially triggering a deadly human flu pandemic.

Bird flu has killed at least nine people in Thailand and 19 in Vietnam this year, after mainly being caught from infected poultry.

- AFP