Death toll rises to 12 as bird flu spreads in Asia
Bird flu has now killed 12 people in Asia and millions of chickens have been destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus.
The outbreak is "far from being under control," said He Changchui of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. "It remains a serious public health and animal threat, particularly in China, Thailand and Vietnam."
The latest victims were a teenage boy in Vietnam and a 58-year-old woman in Thailand who raised chickens. Those countries are the only ones where humans have died from this strain of avian influenza.
The World Health Organisation continues to investigate a case in which the disease may have been transmitted between people, rather than from birds to people. If so, it would be the first recorded instance of human-to-human transmission in the current outbreak, raising the prospects of the virus mutating into a form that passes easily between people.
The case revolves around a wedding in Vietnam on December 30 for which the groom and one of his sisters prepared a duck, WHO said. The groom fell ill on January 3. The sister who prepared the duck with him, as well as a second sister and the bride, got sick the following week. The groom and both sisters died, but the bride survived.
Investigators say they have found nothing to indicate the second sister or the bride were infected through exposure to poultry.
That would suggest human-to-human transmission, but the WHO cautioned it cannot rule out the possibility of direct contact with sick poultry.
Bird flu has struck poultry in at least 10 Asian countries, but infections in people have been reported only in Thailand and Vietnam.
China announced five new suspected poultry cases yesterday, including one in its remote northwestern region of Xinjiang underlining the potentially broad range of the disease. Xinjiang is more than 1,000 miles from where China's first case was confirmed.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
