WHO: H2H BIRD FLU IS HERE

CBS/AP:

WHO: Bird Flu May Have Spread Between Humans

Limited human-to-human bird flu transmission may have occurred in Pakistan, but no new infections have been reported for two weeks and there appears to be no threat of further spread, a top World Health Organization official said.

A WHO team has finished its initial investigation in Pakistan after up to nine patients, including several family members, were suspected of being infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in areas north of Islamabad. They were the country's first reported human cases.

The experts were expected back in Geneva to begin piecing together how the virus may have spread, but they found no evidence of anyone currently sickened by the virus, Dr. David Heymann, the WHO's top flu official in Geneva, told The Associated Press by telephone Friday.

"I think the team right now feels on initial analysis that this might be a small chain of human-to-human, non-sustained transmission," he said, stressing there was no cause for alarm.

"NO CAUSE FOR ALARM"??? NOT YET, MAYBE, BUT SOON.