GENEVA/BEIJING: The World Health Organisation yesterday said many people who had tested positive for a new strain of bird flu in China had had no history of contact with poultry, adding to the mystery about the virus that has killed 16 people to date.
China has slaughtered thousands of birds and closed some live poultry markets to stem the rate of human infection, but many questions remain unsolved, including whether the H7N9 strain is being transmitted between people.
“This is one of the puzzles still (to) be solved and therefore argues for a wide investigation net,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said after a top Chinese scientist said about 40 percent of those with the H7N9 flu had had no poultry contact.
Several avenues should be explored by an international team of experts going to China soon, including the possibility that the virus can be spread between people, although there is “no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission,” Hartl said.
“It might be because of dust at the wet markets, it could be another animal source beside poultry, it could also be human-to-human transmission,” he added by telephone.
Wendy Barclay, a flu expert at Imperial College London, said it was likely to be very difficult to determine and rule out people’s exact exposure to poultry - and to wild birds, which could also be a possible source of infection.
“The incubation time might be quite long so visiting a market even 14 days before might have resulted in infection,” she said.
Previously the WHO reported two suspected family “clusters”, but later said the virus was found not to have infected anyone in the first. Tests in the second were inconclusive and experts say the poor quality samples may make it impossible to know. China has warned that the number of infections could rise from 77 now.
Meanwhile, a seven-year-old girl who contracted the strain left hospital and appeared before the media in a bid by health authorities to cool concerns about the deadly virus.
The daughter of a poultry trader was Beijing’s first confirmed human case of the virus. She said she was feeling “much better”, at a press conference held by hospital authorities. Her parents, who had been quarantined for observation, left with her.
Agencies
