PUBLIC HEALTH | Avian Influenza or Bird Flu

Concerns about a possible global pandemic (simultaneous epidemics) of avian influenza (bird flu) continued in 2006. Public health officials worried that the highly pathogenic (disease-causing) H5N1 strain of bird flu might mutate (change genetically) and become more easily transmissible from person to person. The H5N1 strain normally spreads to people from close contact with infected poultry or wild birds, though transmission among family members - and between patients and health care providers - has also been reported. As of late 2006, most reported human cases of avian influenza had occurred in China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Since the first reported cases in 2003, at least 258 people had been infected worldwide, and 154 people had died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. In June 2006, WHO scientists reported the first laboratory-conformed evidence of H5N1 virus transmission from person to person. The cases occurred in a family in Indonesia, causing the deaths of seven family members. Scientists noted that all seven people were blood relatives - rather spouses - raising the possibility that some individuals might be genetically predisposed to the ill effects of H5N1 infection. There were far more avian influenza infections in Indonesia in 2096 than in any other country - 55 cases, with 45 deaths by November 29. Chinese officials reported 12 new cases of H5N1 infection, including 8 deaths, as of October 31. However, the Chinese government provided few details on these cases, making it difficult for international health organizations to evaluate the state of avian influenza in the Communist nation. In 2005, Chinese Ministry of Health and WHO officials confirmed that a man whose death in Beijing, the capital, in November 2003 was attributed to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) actually died of avian influenza. The man's death became the first official laboratory-conformed H5N1 case. Previously, the first case of human H5N1 infection was thought to have occurred in China in October 2005.