Son 'gave bird flu to his father'YAHOO/AFP:
Most people killed by the disease so far have been infected by birds
A rare case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu being passed from one person to another has been reported by health officials in China.
One man died, but his father lived after he too caught the virus in the eastern Jiangsu province last year.
Scientists fear if the virus mutates and gains the ability to pass easily between humans, millions could die.
But Chinese officials and the World Health Organization said there was no evidence of a mutation in this case.
More than 200 people have died around the world since the current outbreak began five years ago.
A man in China contracted bird flu because he was in close contact with his infected son, although the virus had not mutated into a form that is highly contagious among humans, authorities said Thursday.
A 52-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lu, was hospitalised with the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of the virus soon after his son died from it on December 2. Lu has since recovered.
Chinese health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said Lu's infection was due to close contact with his son, but that the transmission was not technically "human-to-human".
"It has no biological features for human-to-human transmission," he told journalists.
Like many human cases of bird flu in China, authorities have not been able to identify the source as neither Lu nor his son had close contact with sick or dead poultry prior to infection, he said.
He refused to elaborate on the findings, which was reached by the ministry's expert group on bird flu.
- IT'S H2H NOW - IN PAKISTAN AND CHINA.
- IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE IT BECOMES MORE INFECTIOUS - IT WILL; MUTUATE; THAT'S WHAT VIRUSES DO.
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