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CDC sends team to probe Asian bird flu
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Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Reuters
ATLANTA(December 3, 1997 8:23 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - The
Centers for Disease Control is sending a team of epidemiologists to Hong
Kong Friday to investigate a strain of flu that usually afflicts birds
but has infected humans for the first time.
A CDC spokeswoman said the agency did not believe there was a link
between the two flu victims, both children and both from Hong Kong. The
likely source of the virus was chickens.
"The only thing we know is they (the two flu cases) are not similar in
terms of coming from the same source," Barbara Reynolds told Reuters
Wednesday.
She said Hong Kong had experienced a flu epidemic among ducks and
chickens.
The World Health Organization confirmed the second case of influenza A,
strain H5N1 in a human Tuesday.
That case involved a 2-year-old boy hospitalized in November who has
since recovered. The first victim, a 3-year-old boy, died in May of
complications associated with Reye's syndrome.
Reynolds said the CDC has no records on whether the same strain of avian
flu affects birds in other areas of the world.
"We don't study animals unless they start messing with humans," she
said. "Our concern here is to keep track of any new or emerging viruses
that have undergone an antigenic shift."
She said the CDC was vigilant about investigating new viruses and those
that cross from animals into humans because "we have a world population
not immune to them."
Reynolds stressed there was no indication the avian virus has yet been
transmitted by human-to-human contact, but the CDC epidemiologists would
examine whether that could happen because of the potential for a
pandemic, or worldwide flu epidemic.
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