QDIS Blog

Bloomberg reports on the possibility that bird flu bird flu MAY have been transmitted from human to human without contact with animals or birds. If true this would be very disconcerting. This took place in Indonesia on the island of Sumatara where seven family members were infected, six died and there was no evidence of infected animals in the immediate area. The US CDC and the WHO are both investigating and the primary interest is in if and how much the virus may have mutated.

I am hesitant to even post this as I try to avoid being alarmist. It should be clearly stated that this is still under investigation. There is no way of knowing for sure that the infections happened by human contact. It could be that there were animals involved and the evidence just has not (or could not) be found.

One other area of concern is that pigs have been found in Indonesia that have antibodies to the bird flu (according to Flu Stories: Indonesian Cluster Follow-Up) . Checking again seems to show the pigs were not currently infected (as of May 19). This shows the possibility of confusion. This means the pigs were probably infected at one time (hence the antibodies) but weere not currently infected with the cirus. However, this of concern because there is the possibility that pigs, infected with both bird flu and a human flu at the same time, could allow “mix and match” to occur and lead to a bird flu virus that could be transmitted from human to human.

Resources:
• Very good blog posting on the situation: Flu Stories: Indonesian Cluster Follow-Up
• CDC information on pandemic flu
• Lancet article on world preparedness from May 13, 2006 (free registration required)
• Flu Wiki and specific thread to this incident

Technorati Tags: bird flu, flu pandemic, H5N1

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