WHO cools fears over bird flu spread by humans

cctv.com 02-03-2004 13:24

The World Health Organization has announced the possible first case of bird virus human transmission did not alter the organization's overall state of alert against the disease.

The United Nations health agency believes at least two Vietnamese, one of whom died last month, may have caught the virus from another member of their family rather than directly from poultry.

But the head of WHO's Global Influenza Program said person-to-person transmission should come as no surprise, because it had occurred in limited numbers in apparently similar avian flu outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997. And there has been to date no significant further human-to-human transmission.

Editor:Zheng  Source:CCTV.com