Bird Flu Cluster Source Possibly Sick Or Dead Chickens But No Proof

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Article Date: 25 May 2006 - 11:00 PDT

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According to a World Health Organization official, the first person to become infected with bird flu from the largest human cluster so far, could have got it from infected chickens. She probably went on to infect her family members as no animal source has been identified for them.

Reports indicate that the woman - the first person in the cluster to become infected - could have got the infection through:

-- Chicken manure she used in her vegetable garden
or
-- Contact with sick birds in a market where she sold vegetables

As far as the other six members of her family who got infected, WHO believes they most likely got the infection from her, and from each other. Of the seven who became infected in this cluster, six have died. Most likely there was an eighth member who became infected and died, this person was buried before samples could be taken.

WHO says the virus has not mutated into an easily human transmissible form. H5N1 has always been able to transmit from one human to another, albeit rarely, if an infected person is in close, continuous contact with another. In this case, the family shared a tiny room. The first human infected, the woman, coughed a lot in the small room she shared with the other seven.

If H5N1 had really mutated, infection would not have been limited just to the people who shared that small room.

Health experts from various countries are combing the area for any more cases of human infection - they have not found any.

Rumors are rife in Kubu Sembelang, where the infected family lived, that they died as a result of some black magic, rather than bird flu. In order to prove chickens had nothing to do with it, some locals cut a chicken's head off and drank its blood.

After apparently extensive testing, not one infected bird has been found in the village. Scientists are unable to explain this. One also wonders how they can say that the first person was probably infected by a chicken if they have no evidence of this.

So far, there have been four family clusters of human H5N1 infection. In all these clusters only blood relatives have become infected. In other words, the spouse of the infected people did not get infected.

This Indonesian cluster differs from the others in several ways:

-- No infected birds have been found in the village
-- Infection seemingly went from one person, to another, to another, etc. In the other clusters one person infected another - the infection did not continue to any more people.
-- It is the largest cluster so far.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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