3 possible human bird flu cases in China, says officials

Three people had pneumonia in the Hunan Province last month, one of them - a 12 year old girl - died, two are pulling through, officials in China say it is possible that they had bird flu.


A boy of nine (brother to the girl who died) is said to be recovering in hospital, as is a 36 year old (not a relative).


Samples were sent off for tests. If bird flu is confirmed they will be the first cases of bird flu in humans on Chinese territory.


Over the last three weeks China has had four serious outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu virus strain among bird flocks. 6 million poultry have been culled in the northeast of the country in an effort to stop the virus from spreading.


Authorities have asked WHO (World Health Organization) to test for bird flu among the three humans. It could be a few weeks before we know the results (testing is quite complex).


So far, bird flu has killed 62 people since 2003 (out of 120 infections) - all of them in Southeast Asia. More than 100 million birds have died.


It is still not easy for humans to catch bird flu. The H5N1 virus, the most dangerous one, spreads easily among birds but not among humans. Humans can catch it from birds if there is a lot of contact (with birds) - even then, infection is not easy. Infection from human to human is extremely rare. However, if the virus manages to mutate it could jump from human to human. If this happened it would be the beginning of a new human flu pandemic.


How could the virus mutate?


Scientists say there are various ways. The most likely would be if the H5N1 virus infected a human who was also infected with normal human flu. The two viruses could then exchange genes. The H5N1 virus, with a new set of genes from the normal flu virus, would be able to spread among humans (like normal flu does). The H5N1 virus, with that new set of genes, would be the new mutated virus.


Currently, the H5N1 bird flu strain has a death rate among infected humans of about 50%. If the infected patient is identified and treated with antiviral drugs early, there is a good chance he/she can pull through. At the moment, the most effective anti-viral, if administered early on during infection, is called Tamiflu. Tamiflu is not a vaccine. It is an antiviral drug that is administered to a patient after he/she is infected. Tamiflu is ineffective if not administered during the early stages of infection. There are indications that the bird flu virus may be developing resistance to current antiviral medication.


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View drug information on Tamiflu capsule.