Chinese man contracts bird flu from son

According to official health reports, a 52-year old man in China contracted the H5N1 strain of avian influenza from his son late last year. The two were diagnosed within the same week of each other but while the 24-year-old died his father survived after receiving early antiviral treatment and post-vaccination plasma from a participant in an H5N1 vaccine trial.

A study of this confirmed case of human-human transmission, one of only a dozen worldwide, was published on-line in The Lancet on April 8. According to a team of Chinese and US researchers, the younger man's only plausible exposure to H5N1 virus was a poultry market visit six days before onset, while the father had close exposure to his ill son. 91 contacts were identified that were exposed to one or both cases. Of these individuals, 78 (86%) received chemoprophylaxis with Roche's Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the main antiviral stockpiled around the world against a possible bird flu pandemic, and two had mild illness.

Both ill contacts tested negative for H5N1 and all 91 close contacts tested negative for H5N1 antibodies. H5N1 viruses isolated from the two cases were genetically identical except for one non-synonymous nucleotide substitution, the researchers noted.