Human bird transmission reported in China

A case of human-to-human bird flu transmission has been reported in China by state officials.

Researchers from Nejing's Chinese Centre for Disease Control said a 24-year-old man who died of bird flu in December passed the virus directly to his father.

Tests later showed that the two men were infected with identical strains of the H5N1 virus.

"In this family cluster of confirmed cases of infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in mainland China, we believe that the index case transmitted H5N1 virus to his father while his father cared for him in the hospital," reported Reuters of the results in the Lancet medical journal.

The World Health Organisation figures say that 238 people around the world have died from bird flu since 2003.

Most cases of the H5N1 virus have been attributed to close contact with infected birds. There have however been rare cases where one person has infected another.

It has been recently reported that human-to-human transmission of the disease was discovered in Pakistan in November. A poultry worker passed the disease on to three of his brothers.