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May 18, 2006
World Health Organization officials are
increasingly concerned that a thus far
unexplained outbreak of the bird flu virus could
mean that a long-feared scenario has been borne
out -- that the virus may have mutated so that it
can be passed from one human to another.
The concern began with reports that seven members
of one family in a remote Indonesian village had
come down with the disease.
Doctors were
immediately troubled by the fact that there had
been no outbreaks of the disease among birds in
the region. To date, all of the more than 200
people infected with the virus have gotten it
from contact with a diseased bird.
Health authorities hoped that their investigation
would disclose a common contact among the seven
infected people. So far, that contact has not
been found.
At this point, health officials say
they cannot rule out that the seven infected
family members passed the virus to each other.
Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention have joined their WHO colleagues
on the scene to continue the probe.
Unless they
can find a connection among all seven family
members with one or more diseased birds, they say
they may be forced to conclude that a mutation has occurred.
Some scientists have said that if the disease can
be transmitted easily among humans, the resulting
pandemic could be catastrophic, resulting in
millions of fatalities worldwide.
At least 115 of
the 208 people known to be infected with the bird
flu have died in the last three years, mainly in Asia.
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