- AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Dutch
scientists have determined bird flu can spread more easily among humans
than was previously thought, researchers said Tuesday.
-
- Albert Osterhaus, a professor at Rotterdam's Erasmus
University, said the finding was based on a study into the spread of the
potentially fatal disease among humans after an outbreak of the disease
in the Netherlands in 2003.
-
- He said researchers who tested medical workers and friends
and family of 90 people who contracted the highly infectious avian influenza
last year found hundreds of undiagnosed cases.
-
- "We discovered some 500 more people were infected
directly from their relatives or colleagues during the outbreak in 2003,"
Osterhaus said, noting that none of the additional people had shown bird
flu symptoms.
-
- The study -- which was carried out with the National
Institute of Health -- concluded more vigilance against the disease was
needed as both the strain that appeared in the Netherlands and another
in Asia were very infectious.
-
- Local poultry farms are being tested regularly since
the bird flu outbreak last year led to the slaughter of a quarter of all
Dutch poultry at a cost of hundreds of millions of euros.
-
- The Netherlands culled 30.7 million birds at some 1,300
farms to contain the outbreak, which was first discovered in March 2003
and caused the death of a veterinarian who took samples at an infected
farm but was not vaccinated.
-
- A strain of bird flu killed 24 people in Southeast Asia
earlier this year.
-
- Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
-
- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=7
53&e=10&u=/nm/20040914/sc_nm/dutch_birdflu_dc
|
