CHINA / Impact
Bird flu transmission to humans may be frequent: study
(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-10 14:27
Hundreds to thousands of people may be infected with bird flu, but have
mild symptoms and do not get admitted to hospital, thereby failing to
appear in official figures, Swedish researchers reported Monday.
A survey of 45,478 people in FilaBavi, a Vietnamese demographic
surveillance site with confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 in poulty during April
to June 2004, found as many as 750 developed flu-like symptoms after
contact with sick or dead birds, according to researchers at the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
More lab tests should be performed to determine if any of those
identified in the survey had contracted bird flu, the researchers said.
"During the widespread Asian highy pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)
epidemic in poultry, the disease has been reportedly rare in humans. Our
findings, however, suggest that in populations living in close contact
with poultry, in areas endemic for HPAI, transmission to humans may be
frequent," the scientists say in a report that appears in the latest
edition of the U.S. journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
"The results suggest that the symptoms most often are relatively mild and
that close contact is needed for transmission to humans," the researchers
conclude.
The new finding adds fuel to an ongoing debate over the true number and
severity of human infections with the highly pathogenic H5N1. There have
been 146 laboratory-confirmed human cases of H5N1 flu reported to World
Health Organization (WHO) as of Jan. 6. with 76 deaths.
Health officials worry the virus may mutate into a form that can spread
among people, raising fears of a pandemic. A flu that jumped from birds
to humans in 1918 killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
Vietnam has been struggling with an outbreak of the avian influenza H5N1
strain in poultry since late 2003. Professor Peter Dunnill, an expert on
vaccines for avian flu at University College London said rural
communities in Vietnam have been living with bird flu for more than 10
years and may have developed resistance to it.
The finding comes as Europe - already on edge over the bird flu scare -
is reeling from reports that 15 people in Turkey have been infected with
H5N1 influenza, apparently transmitted from poultry, and three children
have died.
The latest figures were reported by Turkish authorities; the World Health
Organization has so far confirmed only four cases in Turkey, of which two
have died.
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