Update on possible H2H in Pakistan

[Guest guest]

This sounds like another family-only case of H2H transmission. Note

that one of the three infected brothers has returned to the US. I

wonder if he was still capable of transmission.

Islamabad - Health officials on Friday were investigating a possible

human-to-human transmission of bird flu among four brothers in

north-west Pakistan, two of whom later died. Khushnood Akhtar,

secretary in Pakistan's Ministry of Health, said the bird flu cases

occurred last month in Manshera, North-West Frontier Province, when a

man contracted the H5N1 virus while working on a poultry farm and

helping to cull sick birds.

Human-to-human transmissions are extremely rare, with only 3 previous

cases in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Pakistani man, who has not been identified, survived the virus,

but may have infected three of his brothers, none of whom had ever

been to the farm or were believed to have been in contact with sick

birds, Akhtar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Two of the brothers died from pneumonia-like symptoms but were buried

by family members before health officials could take blood samples to

test for the virus.

A third brother who lives in the United States but was visiting

Manshera at the time also tested positive for bird flu, but survived

and has since returned to the US, Akhtar told dpa.

" The two brothers died and we suspect that they might have died

because of the human transmission of the H5N1 virus, " he said. " We

have requested the World Health Organization (WHO) send a team to the

area so we can find out exactly what happened there. "

WHO officials in Islamabad could not be reached for comment.

Globally, bird flu has killed at least 208 people worldwide out of 339

cases since 2003. Most human cases of H5N1 are linked to contact with

infected birds, but experts fear the virus might mutate into a form

that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic that

could kill millions of people.

The two Pakistani brothers who survived are the first confirmed people

in Pakistan to contract the virus, while health officials are not sure

whether they will be able to confirm that the two who died succumbed

to bird flu.

There have been outbreaks of bird flu within the country's commercial

poultry population, prompting culls of around 50,000 birds.

The latest reports contradict earlier claims by a health official at a

hospital in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, who

erroneously said the two victims had worked on a poultry farm and died

earlier this month. He also did not have any information about the two

brothers who survived.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/158727.html