WHO Raises Specter of Human Bird Flu Transmission

[spotbird]

HANOI (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the specter of human-to-human transmission of deadly avian influenza following confirmation that two Vietnamese brothers had contracted the virus and one had died.

*skip*

What the WHO fears most is that the virus could mutate if it infected a person sick with ordinary flu, or got into an animal hosting a human flu virus, such as a pig.If the H5N1 were to merge with a human flu virus, it could produce a strain capable of sweeping through a human population without immunity, possibly killing millions worldwide.

*skip*

The WHO warned on Thursday that the bird flu virus was now endemic in Asia and it appeared to be evolving in ways that increasingly favored the start of a deadly human outbreak. It had become "hardier," surviving several days longer in the environment, and evidence also suggested that it was expanding its range of mammal hosts, including captive tigers and experimentally infected domestic cats, it said.

http://maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=9716

The parts skipped include a discussion about whether the transmission between the brothers was human to human.

[blackcat77]

1. They ate a meal with raw duck blood

Stupid, stupid, stupid... It's tragic that anybody died, but it's very difficult to believe that anybody over there wouldn't know the dangers.

[spotbird]

2. Yeah, but this should be a major worry

to the United States. We can't just hope it won't mutate.