February 3, 2004

WHO: No Human Bird Flu Transmission Yet

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday dismissed speculations that there has been a case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in Vietnam.

Bjorn Melgaard, WHO representative in Thailand, claimed that with initial information on the avian virus, H5N1, it was "not a very efficient virus in terms of infecting humans. The WHO does not think the current virus will mutate or change its properties to cause a large virus outbreak".

Mr Melgaard said the avian virus did not pose a global public health risk but the risk would occur if a new virus was created through a combination of the current bird flu virus and the human influenza virus, making it transmittable to humans.

He was speaking in response to a report that two sisters who died of bird flu in Vietnam were suspected by the WHO to have caught the disease from their brother, who died of respiratory illness shortly before the sisters were admitted to hospital.

Mr Melgaard said in Thailand there was no evidence and no suspicion of human-to-human infection even among the suspect cases.

He Changchui, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's representative, called for affected countries not to drop their guard. "The eruption of new infection cases in Thailand, China and Vietnam shows that the disease is far from being under control," he said.