Bird flu transmitted by humans?

last updated 8 January 2015

Kubu Sembilang, Indonesia

Seven members of an Indonesian family who died of bird flu this month may have caught the virus from other family members, the World Health Organization said this week. That would make the outbreak a rare instance of human-to-human transmission and a potentially ominous step toward a human pandemic. But officials cautioned against overreacting. Genetic analysis of the strain that killed the Sumatran villagers indicated that the flu has not mutated, which means that further spreading among humans is not likely. Still, the source of this particular outbreak of H5N1 is a mystery. “We can’t find sick animals in this community, and that worries us,” said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley. There is “no explanation as to how these people became infected.”