Genetic factors may influence whether humans contract avian flu from birds, according to new research.
November 4, 2006 (Press Release) --
Genetic factors may influence whether humans contract avian flu from birds, according to new research.
According to the World Health Organisation a person's genetic make-up may explain why some people get the disease and others do not.
The WHO theory is based on data from rare instances of human-to human transmission in genetically-related people.
The WHO said this theory, if more fully explored, might help explain why human cases are relatively rare, and why the virus is not spreading easily from animals to humans or from human to human.
The evidence for the theory is based on a family cluster of cases last May in Indonesia, when seven people in an extended family died.
Only blood relatives were infected in the Karo district of North Sumatra, the largest cluster known to date worldwide.
In this outbreak, the virus only spread among bloods relatives and not to spouses or into the general community.
There remain fears that the bird flu virus cold mutate and generate a human flu pandemic which could affect millions of people.
source: http://www.irishhealth.com
According to the World Health Organisation a person's genetic make-up may explain why some people get the disease and others do not.
The WHO theory is based on data from rare instances of human-to human transmission in genetically-related people.
The WHO said this theory, if more fully explored, might help explain why human cases are relatively rare, and why the virus is not spreading easily from animals to humans or from human to human.
The evidence for the theory is based on a family cluster of cases last May in Indonesia, when seven people in an extended family died.
Only blood relatives were infected in the Karo district of North Sumatra, the largest cluster known to date worldwide.
In this outbreak, the virus only spread among bloods relatives and not to spouses or into the general community.
There remain fears that the bird flu virus cold mutate and generate a human flu pandemic which could affect millions of people.
source: http://www.irishhealth.com
Email
Print
SPAM
LEAVE A COMMENT
