Tweet
WHO: Human bird flu cases rises to 216, with 122 fatal
GENEVA (AP): The U.N. health agency has raised the confirmed human death toll from the H5N1 bird flu strain to 122, adding six Indonesians who died of the virus earlier this month and an Egyptian who died Thursday.
The World Health Organization said the total number of confirmed human infections since the current outbreak began in 2003 has reached 216. Virtually all were exposed to the disease by contact with poultry.
Egypt's Health Ministry said earlier Thursday that a sixth person had died of bird flu in the country.
WHO said her infection, consistent with all other human cases in Egypt, has been linked to exposure to diseased birds. The health body has confirmed 14 cases in Egypt, six of which were fatal.
Five of the confirmed Indonesian deaths were members of an extended family living in a village in the country's North Sumatra province.
A 37-year-old woman, who died earlier this month, is believed to have initiated the deaths in the family, the health agency said, but added that no specimens were obtained before her burial and the cause of her death cannot therefore be confirmed.
The five who died were the woman's two sons, a sister, a nephew and a niece. A 25-year-old man, the woman's brother, also contacted the disease, but is still alive, WHO said.
Indonesia's sixth confirmed fatality was a woman who died in the East Java city of Surabaya, where no previous cases had been found, WHO said.
WHO said its epidemiologists and Indonesian health officials were closely investigating what sparked the rash of cases in the family group, calling it the "largest cluster of cases, closely related in time and place, reported to date in any country."
Multiple infections, or clusters, are closely monitored by officials who fear the disease could become more infectious.
Experts study "cluster" cases looking for signs that H5N1 may have mutated into a form easily passed between humans - a scenario that many fear could trigger a human pandemic capable of killing millions.
"Multiple hypotheses are being investigated," the agency said."The possibility of limited human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out at present."
But, it added, "if human-to-human transmission has occurred, it has not been either efficient or sustained," noting that investigators have found no evidence that infection has spread beyond members of the family.
Since 2003, a total of 40 people have been infected with the H5N1 virus in Indonesia and 31 have died, according to WHO figures. (**)
GENEVA (AP): The U.N. health agency has raised the confirmed human death toll from the H5N1 bird flu strain to 122, adding six Indonesians who died of the virus earlier this month and an Egyptian who died Thursday.
The World Health Organization said the total number of confirmed human infections since the current outbreak began in 2003 has reached 216. Virtually all were exposed to the disease by contact with poultry.
Egypt's Health Ministry said earlier Thursday that a sixth person had died of bird flu in the country.
WHO said her infection, consistent with all other human cases in Egypt, has been linked to exposure to diseased birds. The health body has confirmed 14 cases in Egypt, six of which were fatal.
Five of the confirmed Indonesian deaths were members of an extended family living in a village in the country's North Sumatra province.
A 37-year-old woman, who died earlier this month, is believed to have initiated the deaths in the family, the health agency said, but added that no specimens were obtained before her burial and the cause of her death cannot therefore be confirmed.
The five who died were the woman's two sons, a sister, a nephew and a niece. A 25-year-old man, the woman's brother, also contacted the disease, but is still alive, WHO said.
Indonesia's sixth confirmed fatality was a woman who died in the East Java city of Surabaya, where no previous cases had been found, WHO said.
WHO said its epidemiologists and Indonesian health officials were closely investigating what sparked the rash of cases in the family group, calling it the "largest cluster of cases, closely related in time and place, reported to date in any country."
Multiple infections, or clusters, are closely monitored by officials who fear the disease could become more infectious.
Experts study "cluster" cases looking for signs that H5N1 may have mutated into a form easily passed between humans - a scenario that many fear could trigger a human pandemic capable of killing millions.
"Multiple hypotheses are being investigated," the agency said."The possibility of limited human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out at present."
But, it added, "if human-to-human transmission has occurred, it has not been either efficient or sustained," noting that investigators have found no evidence that infection has spread beyond members of the family.
Since 2003, a total of 40 people have been infected with the H5N1 virus in Indonesia and 31 have died, according to WHO figures. (**)
Comment