April 8, 2008

scientists react to research on H5N1 as published in The Lancet

A paper in The Lancet has concluded that a Chinese man diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of avian flu probably caught the disease from his son, suggesting the possibility of person-to-person transmission. However, there is no evidence of an imminent pandemic.

Prof Ian Jones, Director of Research, University of Reading, said:

“Although the title of this paper looks chilling its findings are all good. 91 people who had close contact with the son who died did not show any sign of having seen the virus and the son’s father, although infected, made a full recovery. On top of that the virus isolated had no changes to indicate adaptation to human infection. It would seem the father simply caught the avian virus breathed out by his dying son as he, in turn, had acquired it from a bird. Thus, there is no indication from this data that we are any nearer a pandemic.”

Prof Wendy Barclay, Chair in Influenza Virology, Imperial College London, said:

“This interesting paper describes a situation where two family members acquired H5N1 influenza virus infection.

“Although it is possible that the father did catch H5N1 influenza from his son, there is no virological evidence to support the idea that this strain of H5N1 virus has acquired mutations that allow it to pass readily from one person to another. The experience here reinforces the idea that there are still several barriers the virus must overcome before it acquires human transmissibility.”