a.i latest

A little reassurance after the alarm that was being spread yesterday, but
still something we should all be keeping an eye on. (copied across from
Reuters statement released 2hrs ago) I have to keep reminding concerned
family and friends that the number of human deaths from this over the last 3
years is an average of around forty each year WORLDWIDE - more than that
have died shaving! Not trying to be flippant just trying to hold on to a
balanced perspective and the fact that it is its 'potential' to mutate that
is so terrifying. Something that has not and may never happen. There was
an excellent article about A.I, its history and re-emergence in the New
Scientist a few weeks back, also highlighting the danger to wild cats who
are now being impacted upon through consumption of infected birds. Well
worth looking up for those who want a clear, easy- to - follow summary of
this topic, including cluster maps of world occurrences.

Rosie





JAKARTA (Reuters) - Limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu might
have occurred in an Indonesian family but there is no evidence the virus has
mutated to allow it to pass easily among people, the World Health
Organization said.

Fears of human-to-human transmission pushed down European shares and boosted
demand for safe-haven bonds on Wednesday, lifting benchmark Bund futures to
their highest in more than six weeks. The dollar rose against the yen.
Concern has been growing about the case in north Sumatra in which seven
family members from a village died this month. The case is the largest
family cluster known to date, the WHO has said.

The WHO and Indonesian health officials are baffled over the source of the
infection but genetic sequencing has shown the H5N1 bird flu virus has not
mutated, the UN agency said on its Web site (http://www.who.int) on Tuesday.
Nor was there any sign of the virus spreading among other villagers.

"To date, the investigation has found no evidence of spread within the
general community and no evidence that efficient human-to-human transmission
has occurred, the WHO said.

"Sequencing of all eight gene segments found no evidence of genetic
reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses and no evidence of
significant mutations," the WHO statement read.

"The human viruses from this cluster are genetically similar to viruses
isolated from poultry in North Sumatra during a previous outbreak."

Sick poultry have been the source of bird flu infections for the vast
majority of human cases worldwide. The virus can also infect pigs.

Clusters are looked on with far more suspicion than isolated infections
because they raise the possibility the virus might have mutated to transmit
efficiently among humans.

That could spark a pandemic, killing millions of people.

Financial markets have become worried after the WHO said one of the family
members, a 32-year-old father, died on Monday after caring for his ailing
son, who also died.

The agency said such close contact was considered a possible source of
infection.

WORRYING

"This is the most significant development so far in terms of public health,"
Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the West Pacific region of the WHO, told
Reuters Television in the Philippine capital on Wednesday.

"We have never had a cluster as large as this. We have not had in the past
what we have here, which is no explanation as to how these people became
infected."

"We can't find sick animals in this community and that worries us," he
added.

Bird flu has killed 124 people in ten countries since it re-emerged in
Asia in 2003. It remains essentially a disease in birds and has spread to
dozens of countries in wild birds and poultry.

Limited transmissions between people -- the result of very close and
prolonged contact when the sick person is coughing and probably
infectious -- are very likely to have occurred before in Hong Kong, Vietnam,
Thailand and Indonesia.

Close contact also occurred in the Sumatran family, the WHO said, giving its
first details of the case.

So far, investigators know that a woman, known as the initial case, appeared
to have been the first to become ill at the end of April. She died in early
May and was buried before samples could be taken from her body.

"Preliminary findings indicate that three of the confirmed cases spent the
night of 29 April in a small room together with the initial case at a time
when she was symptomatic and coughing frequently," the WHO Web statement on
Tuesday reads.

"All confirmed cases in the cluster can be directly linked to close and
prolonged exposure to a patient during a phase of severe illness. Although
human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out, the search for a possible
alternative source of exposure is continuing," the WHO said.

Markets are also nervous about a suspected family cluster in Iran.

An Iranian medical official told Reuters on Monday that a 41-year-old man
and his 26-year-old sister from the northwestern city of Kermanshah had
tested positive for bird flu.

But Health Minister Kamran Lankarani denied this although international
health officials are still investigating.

The two siblings were among five members of a family who became sick and the
other three remain in the hospital.


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