More Indonesians quarantined, none sick: WHO
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060526/wl_nm/birdflu_indonesia_who_dc;_ylt=A0SOwk4rw3ZEJwYA8Qlm.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
GENEVA (Reuters) - Health experts have now asked 54 people in a remote Indonesian village to quarantine themselves at home, up from 33 earlier, but none are reported to have any bird flu symptoms, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The measures were taken after the H5N1 bird flu virus killed as many as seven family members in the Simbelang village in north Sumatra earlier this month.
The United Nations health agency said earlier this week that limited human-to-human transmission between family members might have occurred in the largest known cluster of cases of the deadly disease.
"The number of close contacts under home quarantine has been increased to 54," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva.
None of the close contacts of the victims had shown any symptoms of the disease, according to the spokesman.
But 39 of them were taking the antiviral Tamiflu, by Swiss drugmaker Roche, as a precaution. The WHO recommends Tamiflu as the frontline drug against the disease.
"All who can take it are. The others are not taking it because they are either pregnant, lactating mothers or children," Hartl said.
The WHO has stressed that even if human-to-human transmission did occur, it was in a very limited way and the infection has not spread beyond the family. Genetic analysis has shown the virus has not mutated into one that can be easily passed among people, according to the agency.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060526/wl_nm/birdflu_indonesia_who_dc;_ylt=A0SOwk4rw3ZEJwYA8Qlm.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
GENEVA (Reuters) - Health experts have now asked 54 people in a remote Indonesian village to quarantine themselves at home, up from 33 earlier, but none are reported to have any bird flu symptoms, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The measures were taken after the H5N1 bird flu virus killed as many as seven family members in the Simbelang village in north Sumatra earlier this month.
The United Nations health agency said earlier this week that limited human-to-human transmission between family members might have occurred in the largest known cluster of cases of the deadly disease.
"The number of close contacts under home quarantine has been increased to 54," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva.
None of the close contacts of the victims had shown any symptoms of the disease, according to the spokesman.
But 39 of them were taking the antiviral Tamiflu, by Swiss drugmaker Roche, as a precaution. The WHO recommends Tamiflu as the frontline drug against the disease.
"All who can take it are. The others are not taking it because they are either pregnant, lactating mothers or children," Hartl said.
The WHO has stressed that even if human-to-human transmission did occur, it was in a very limited way and the infection has not spread beyond the family. Genetic analysis has shown the virus has not mutated into one that can be easily passed among people, according to the agency.