T. ModestoPhD
In Memoriam
Indonesian Bird Flu Case May Have Spread Among People (Update1)
By John Lauerman
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A 27-year-old Indonesian man confirmed to be infected with bird flu may have caught it after spending six days caring for a sister who was hospitalized with the disease, the World Health Organization said.
The infection brings the country's total cases of the disease to 65 people, including 49 deaths, the United Nations health agency said on its Web site. The man, from Solok in the province of West Sumatra, developed mild symptoms and recovered in a few days.
An investigation ``determined that he had exposure to his sister during her hospital stay, and that human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out as the source of his infection,'' the agency said in a statement today. He reported no contact with dead or diseased poultry before falling ill.
The case represents another cluster of possible human-to- human transmission and raises questions about the strain of H5N1 spreading in Indonesia, said Ira Longini, a University of Washington epidemiologist who advises the U.S. government on flu issues. Health officials are concerned that the H5N1 bird flu, which has killed more than half of those infected, may mutate into a form that spreads easily among people.
``It's still an avian strain, but it could be more adapted to human populations,'' Longini said today in a telephone interview. ``These human clusters of cases in Indonesia with apparent human-to-human transmission are great cause for concern.''
Previous Case
Disease trackers investigated another outbreak of bird flu among Sumatran family members in May, in which a woman might have passed the infection along to six relatives. One of those patients, a 10-year-old boy, may have then infected his father.
Deadly influenzas spread around the world in 1918, when the disease killed as many as 50 million people, and again in 1957 and 1968.
The H5N1 flu has infected 246 people in 10 countries since late 2003, killing 144 of those patients, the WHO said today. More than 200 million birds worldwide have died from the disease or been killed to prevent its spread.
Health officials in the U.S. and other nations have built stockpiles of antivirals such as Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza. Roche said today that its U.S. supply chain for Tamiflu is fully operational and able to make treatments for 80 million influenza cases.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net .
By John Lauerman
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- A 27-year-old Indonesian man confirmed to be infected with bird flu may have caught it after spending six days caring for a sister who was hospitalized with the disease, the World Health Organization said.
The infection brings the country's total cases of the disease to 65 people, including 49 deaths, the United Nations health agency said on its Web site. The man, from Solok in the province of West Sumatra, developed mild symptoms and recovered in a few days.
An investigation ``determined that he had exposure to his sister during her hospital stay, and that human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out as the source of his infection,'' the agency said in a statement today. He reported no contact with dead or diseased poultry before falling ill.
The case represents another cluster of possible human-to- human transmission and raises questions about the strain of H5N1 spreading in Indonesia, said Ira Longini, a University of Washington epidemiologist who advises the U.S. government on flu issues. Health officials are concerned that the H5N1 bird flu, which has killed more than half of those infected, may mutate into a form that spreads easily among people.
``It's still an avian strain, but it could be more adapted to human populations,'' Longini said today in a telephone interview. ``These human clusters of cases in Indonesia with apparent human-to-human transmission are great cause for concern.''
Previous Case
Disease trackers investigated another outbreak of bird flu among Sumatran family members in May, in which a woman might have passed the infection along to six relatives. One of those patients, a 10-year-old boy, may have then infected his father.
Deadly influenzas spread around the world in 1918, when the disease killed as many as 50 million people, and again in 1957 and 1968.
The H5N1 flu has infected 246 people in 10 countries since late 2003, killing 144 of those patients, the WHO said today. More than 200 million birds worldwide have died from the disease or been killed to prevent its spread.
Health officials in the U.S. and other nations have built stockpiles of antivirals such as Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza. Roche said today that its U.S. supply chain for Tamiflu is fully operational and able to make treatments for 80 million influenza cases.
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net .