The risks of bird flu epidemic remain. Its transmission among humans is still being examined as a new transmission finding was alarming. Recently, a Chinese man had been infected with the H5N1 virus coming from contaminated birds. Soon after, his father died and believed to also have contacted the virus.
With this incident, the World Health Organization (WHO) is looking into the possibility that H5N1 virus, causing bird’s flu, could have been transmitted from the son to the father.
Generally, this implies that there is a greater risk that it may be like a contagious disease that can be passed on among humans through direct contact.
Earlier studies showed that humans got the virus from infected birds. But with the recent findings, scientists are alarmed about the ability of the virus to be transmitted easily if the contamination is proven in human-to-human transmission.
This may simply mean, according to them, one infected person may lead to the deaths of tens of millions of people.
Based on the reports posted on the Chinese ministry website, an old man identified with a surname, Lu, 52, residing in Jiangsu province died and was confirmed to be infected with the virus.
His son, 24, was earlier contaminated and died earlier than his father. Both their death was a matter of days. The son died Dec. 2, while the father followed Dec.4.
WHO spokesman John Rainford said although further investigation must be done if the animal infection was the culprit of their death, still having two deaths within the family was an alarming threat. It is possible that both were infected by the same source or had been infected in separate instances with different sources.
Southeast Asia was plagued by the H5N1 virus (bird’s flu) in late 2003. About 200 lives were taken around the globe. Indonesia posted the highest deaths with 90 and China had 26.
Earlier reports have already been suspected that human-to-human transmission of bird flu is possible in countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia.
BBC News