WHO Confirms Bird Flu has Mutated

[Regit]

This is a follow up to the story that broke several weeks ago. The WHO has confirmed the virus did indeed mutate and transmit human-to-human, but is not yet spreading efficiently.

_______________________________________________________________


The H5N1 bird flu virus mutated somewhat among Indonesians in the largest known human cluster, but did not evolve into a more transmissible form, the World Health Organization has said.

A spokeswoman for the UN agency, Maria Cheng, said the result came from its investigation into a cluster of cases in North Sumatra, where the virus killed seven members of a single family in May.

"There was a mutation found," she told Reuters in Geneva on Friday, in response to a query. "But it did not mutate into a form that is more transmissible because it didn't seem to go beyond the cluster."

Malik Peiris, a leading H5N1 expert from Hong Kong, told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of bird flu experts in Jakarta that it was common for influenza viruses to mutate.

"Influenza viruses always mutate. That's of course the reason why people are concerned that as we go on longer and longer the virus may change to become more transmissible. But that has not happened so far."

The mutated virus was detected in samples taken from the last two victims in the cluster -- a son who transmitted it to his father -- providing the clearest proof yet of human-to-human transmission, Cheng said.

"In the past we haven't had such definitive laboratory evidence to prove human-to-human transmission but in this case we do," she said.

But three weeks later, the man's wife has not shown any signs of the disease, Cheng added. "We did not detect any transmission so it was a dead-end chain of transmission."

Indonesian and WHO officials closely monitored more than 50 contacts of the victims in the North Sumatra case, keeping them in voluntary home quarantine following the outbreak, but none developed symptoms, according to the Geneva-based agency.

Avian influenza almost exclusively infects birds but has killed 130 people since 2003, mostly in Asia.

Indonesia has seen a steady rise in bird flu human infections and deaths. The virus has infected 51 people here, killing 39, and is endemic in poultry in nearly all of the country's 33 provinces.

In Jakarta on Sunday, the government received a pledged grant of A$10 million (Rp 68.5 billion) from Australia to help combat bird flu.

The money will be used to finance a two-year emergency avian influenza program that will focus on animal and human health through December 2007.

Under an agreement signed by Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott and Indonesian chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie, the grant will include $250,000 to support the work of Indonesia's newly created National Avian Influenza Commission.

Australia already allocated $5.5 million in 2005 to help fight bird flu in Indonesia.

Aburizal said the government would need US$900 million over the next three years to tackle avian influenza. "The government has allotted $50 million from the state budget for each of the next three years," he said.

The government plans to host a meeting of donors in Jakarta to raise additional funds for the country's battle against bird flu.

From
THE JAKARTA POST