February 12, 2004

WHO: No Human Bird Flu Transmission

The World Health Organization (WHO) today stated that there has been no human-to-human bird flu transmission after test results conducted on a 23-year-old Vietnamese woman returned negative.

"Virus genetic material from this woman, as for the other case in this cluster, is of avian origin and contains no human influenza genes," it said in its website on Thursday.

On February 6, WHO reported the results from genetic sequencing of H5N1 viruses taken from two sisters in a family cluster in Vietnam. The sequencing announced by it showed that the two viruses were both entirely of avian origin with no human genes, indicating the viruses had not become adapted to be easily transmitted from one human to another.

WHO has corrected that the virus from only one sister has been sequenced, not both sisters. The second virus sequenced and reported was from another case in Vietnam. The virus from the second sister is being sequenced this week.