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Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated In Indonesian Cases

June 23, 2006

Bird Flu • Bird Flu Not the Only Animal Disease Threat • Bird Flu Vaccine Trials 'Encouraging' • FDA Frets about Flu Drugs' Side Effects • World Not Ready For Bird Flu • Researchers: Bird Flu Pandemic Inevitable • Bird Flu Scare in Virginia • FDA Issues Flu Vaccine Guidelines • FDA Approves First Bird Flu Vaccine • More Flu Bugs Show Resistance To Anti-Virals • Seasonal Flu Shot Might Offer Some Bird Flu Protection • Experts Concerned about Tamiflu Overuse • Study Finds Much Bird Flu Planning is Misplaced • U.S. Orders More Bird Flu Vaccine • Scientists Identify Genetic Changes That Could Lead to Bird Flu Pandemic • Drug Interaction Can Render Tamiflu Ineffective • New Bird Flu Variant Renews Pandemic Concerns • Researchers Find New Weapon Against Flu Virus • Researchers Test Spreadability of Bird Flu Viruses to Humans • GlaxoSmithKline Claims Bird Flu Breaththrough • Global Corporations Struggle to Plan For Pandemic • Flu Pandemic Is "Inevitable," EU Experts Warn • Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated In Indonesian Cases • Indonesian Nurse May Have Bird Flu • Study Warns of "Chaos" and "Panic" If Bird Flu Strikes • Investigators Find No Evidence Bird Flu Virus Has Mutated • Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated • Airlines Queasy About Quarantining Bird Flu Victims • More ...

The infection of eight members of an Indonesian family with bird flu at first alarmed international health officials, but now those officials are breathing a little easier.

Experts say that while the family members most likely spread the disease among one another, it may not increase the possibility of a human pandemic.

Scientists with the World Health Organization say it is possible that the H5N1 virus even underwent a slight mutation as it spread, but the mutation has not led to additional human-to-human transmission.

It has been human-to-human transmission that scientists have feared most, because the H5N1 virus is particularly lethal. More than half the humans who have contracted the disease since 1993 have died, and of the eight Indonesian family members who got the virus, seven are now dead.

But since then, no one else in Indonesia has gotten sick. WHO officials say when the father of the family died from the disease, the disease appeared to die with him.

Even so, scientists said the first known human-to-human transmission of the virus is significant, and should be more closely studied.

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