Sisters May Have Gotten Bird Flu from Brother
Date: 03-Feb-04
Country: VIETNAM
Author: Christina Pantin
While the source of infection for the two sisters cannot be conclusively identified, the World Health Organization said it "considers that limited human-to-human transmission, from the brother to the sisters, is one possible explanation."
The deaths brought to 10 the number of people known to have died after the virus, which has decimated poultry flocks across Asia, made the leap to humans.
The WHO can't entirely be sure of how the sisters contracted the disease, because their brother died of respiratory ailments before any tests could be conducted on him.
Scientists believed, and health officials hoped, that the disease could only be contracted through exposure to infected birds or droppings, and not from person to person.
With the disease now taking a foothold in 10 Asian nations, China's state television Sunday reported five more suspected cases of bird flu, bringing to 11 the total number of areas affected in the world's most populous nation.
The Vietnamese sisters, aged 23 and 30, both died on January 23, the WHO said. Their brother died before them.
Six other people in Vietnam have died from bird flu.
The WHO said an investigation into the family's illness failed to uncover any contact with sick poultry or "an environmental source."
"At the same time, such exposures cannot be discounted, either," it said.
Two boys have died in Thailand from bird flu, and two other Vietnamese have been confirmed as having the virus but have recovered or are still in hospital.
The WHO said it saw no evidence of "efficient" transmission between people of the H5N1 virus "in Vietnam or elsewhere."
NOT UNPRECEDENTED
The possibility of human transmission is not unprecedented. The WHO noted that in the 1997 Hong Kong outbreak, there were cases of "limited" human-to-human spread of the virus.
"The incidences of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong never developed into a significant public health threat," it said.
Hanoi's National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology had said last week it was certain the sisters had died of bird flu.
But the WHO waited for tests at a laboratory in Hong Kong to confirm the results before signing off on the Vietnam institute's findings.
Vietnam has heightened its fight against the flu, banning the transport of poultry nationwide. Some 44 provinces out of Vietnam's 64 provinces and major cities have reported outbreaks.
Millions of poultry in Vietnam have been culled or killed by the virus.
China shut down poultry processing factories in bird flu-hit regions as workers stepped up culling and vaccinating to stymie the rapidly spreading disease.
The country is also battling to keep another deadly virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, from resurfacing. A Chinese doctor in the southern province of Guangdong was confirmed last week as China's fourth case since a global epidemic was declared over last July. A Chinese official said the country needed to do more to arrest the spread of disease.
"The reagents used in experiments and tests are not enough or not suitable, such as for SARS and avian flu," Yang Weizhong, a director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a medical forum in Hong Kong.
"The condition and equipment (in the labs) needs further improvement. The staff need training on...emerging diseases."
The WHO has said that China's chances of halting bird flu are dwindling.
China has set up a national command headquarters to fight the spread of bird flu but controlling the disease is particularly worrisome for health experts because nearly four out of five chickens, ducks and other fowl are raised on household farms, where peasants live in close proximity with their animals.