Two other cases of a new and deadly influenza virus were diagnosed in Hong Kong. On Saturday, the public health authorities announced that a 54 year old male and a 13 year old girl, both had contracted a strain of flu that before this spring was thought to infect only birds. "It was not good news to hear. We are very worried," said Dominick Iacuzio, a specialist flu at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
Because flu strains that infect birds can not usually infect people ( science , 12 September, p. 10), the man has not built an immunity to these avian viruses. Therefore, almost everyone would be likely if the virus could spread. the latest infections are the third and fourth instance of an apparent human bird jumping in the last 8 months. the world Health Organization announced today ' hui that the man died of pulmonary complications. the girl is still hospitalized in intensive care, but his condition is improving.
A team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta in Hong Kong, in collaboration with the authorities there to determine how the latest victims have caught the virus. No new victims is known to have been in contact with the two victims previously reported. "The main issue is to determine if the person to person transmission or [the victims] had been in contact with sick birds," said CDC epidemiologist Nancy Arden. "It is very difficult to know at this stage what [the new cases] means." However, she said, if the virus was easily transmissible, "we expect to see many more cases that we have seen so far. "
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