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Bird flu: Crisis deepens
01/02/2004 15:40 - (SA)
Hanoi - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday human-to-human transmission of bird flu was a "possible explanation" for two deaths in Vietnam, in what could be a first in Asia's latest bird flu crisis.
The WHO has already warned that avian flu's highly pathogenic H5N1 strain could combine with a human influenza virus to create a lethal new virus that could kill millions of people across the globe through human-to-human transmission.
Bird flu has been recorded in 10 Asian nations since December and was blamed for 10 deaths last month, eight in Vietnam and two in Thailand.
The WHO said two Vietnamese sisters who fell ill on January 10 and died on January 23 in a Hanoi hospital could have contracted the lethal H5N1 strain of avian flu from their brother, who died of the illness first.
"The investigation has not been able to conclusively identify the source of infection for the two sisters," the UN health agency said in a statement.
"However, WHO considers that limited human-to-human transmission, from the brother to his sisters, is one possible explanation."
The brother died shortly before his sisters, aged 23 and 30, were admitted to hospital and no samples were available from him for H5N1 testing. His wife was also admitted on January 13 but has since recovered.
However the WHO cautioned that there was "no evidence of efficient human-to-human transmission of H5N1 occurring in Vietnam or elsewhere".
No human cases of bird flu have been reported in the world's most populous nation, but in Shanghai 2 000 people have been quarantined.
Since the killer H5N1 strain emerged in South Korea late last year, Asian nations have quickly fallen prey to the disease which is believed to be spread by wild migrating birds.
In Thailand, where 18.4 million birds have been slaughtered, embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called for calm on Sunday and insisted the outbreak was controllable.
The premier, whose credibility has suffered amid accusations that his administration covered up the outbreak, appealed for calm, stressing that no human-to-human transmission of avian flu had been recorded in the kingdom.
"Our suspect persons were infected from chicken to person, not person to person and not from cooked chicken," Thaksin stressed.
Taiwan, where a weaker H5N2 strain of the virus has been found, has stepped up vigilance against bird flu - and the threat of a mutation to a more lethal disease.
About 8 000 poultry and pig farmers have been vaccinated against human influenza and the vaccination of all children below 10 is being considered, the centre for disease control there said.
- AFP
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