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Bird flu could've hit Japan
10/01/2006 11:48 - (SA)
Tokyo - Up to 77 people in Japan - most of them chicken farm workers - may have been infected with a mild form of bird flu, health officials said on Tuesday.
The sufferers came from two prefectures - Saitama and Ibaraki - outside of Tokyo, said Masahiko Shimada, an Ibaraki health official.
Shimada said those infected showed evidence of antibodies to the H5N2 virus, which is weaker than the deadly H5N1 form. None of them showed signs of the disease and there was no danger that they would, Kyodo News agency reported.
"There needs to be further tests to confirm these results," Shimada cautioned.
The Japanese Health Ministry refused to comment on the cases, but a health specialist affiliated with the government confirmed the number of cases at 77 on condition of anonymity.
The much more deadly H5N1 virus has killed at least 76 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation's webpage.
Japan so far has suffered one case of human infection of the more deadly virus, but no deaths.
There have been several outbreaks this year of bird flu among poultry flocks in Ibaraki, about 100 kilometres north of Tokyo.
Japan has culled hundreds of thousands of birds to stop the disease's spread since it was detected in the country in 2004 for the first time in decades.
Shimada said Ibaraki Prefecture alone had culled 2.5 million birds since the outbreak began.
Most of the human infections in the world have been linked to direct contact with sick poultry, but scientists fear that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily between humans, sparking a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.
There is no known cure or vaccination for H5N1 in humans.
- AP
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