December 20, 2007

Pakistan assures no bird flu pandemic

Pakistan on December 19 said there was no immediate threat of a pandemic from bird flu, as experts from World Health Organisation (WHO) experts have carried out tests in the country's northwest after eight people were infected by the virus.

Pakistani health authorities confirmed the eight cases at the weekend, including one death.

The WHO said they were likely to be a combination of infections from poultry and limited human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 avian flu virus due to close contact.

The WHO says a similar case occurred in Indonesia in 2006 among family members believed to have contracted the virus while caring for sick loved ones.

Ministry of Health spokesman Orya Maqbool Jan Abbasi said the last human case was reported on November 23 and they are still taking precautionary measures to prevent a pandemic.

The WHO report is due in the coming days, Abbasi said.

The man believed to have been infected first, a veterinarian who helped operations to cull chickens, recovered but his two brothers died.

One of his dead brothers tested positive for the virus and was not clear if the other brother was infected with H5N1.

Six people have since recovered, while the remaining case is still being treated.

The latest Pakistan cases have yet to be included in the formal WHO tally.