MW, I know you track biologicals: Tuesday December 2 1:22 PM EST New Case of Strange Flu Virus Surfaces GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday confirmed the second case in Hong Kong of a human being infected with a flu virus previously known only to infect birds. In a statement, the United Nations agency said it was keeping up its surveillance and help to national authorities, but there was no evidence that the infection had spread widely or that there had been human-to-human transmission. WHO's collaborating center on influenza at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was analyzing the specimen to see whether the second suspected case of influenza A (strain H5N1) was related to the first which surfaced in May. But preliminary investigations do not indicate a link. The second suspected case, found by China's government virus unit in Hong Kong, involved a two-year-old boy hospitalized in November with fever. He recovered, but a three-year-old boy who was the first reported human incidence of influenza A (strain H5N1), died in Hong Kong in May of Reye Syndrome. "There is no evidence that the infection has spread widely in the community or that there has been human to human transmission," WHO's Dr. Daniel Lavanchy was quoted as saying. The Chinese Department of Health was tracing possible sources of exposure to the virus and liaising closely with WHO, according to the Geneva-based agency. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:54:35 PDT