has not yet been established exactly where Mr. Chen picked up the bird flu virus

The Chinese medical authorities have been quick to refute the suggestion that the H5N1 bird flu strain which killed a Chinese man recently is not contagious among humans. The man Mr. Chen who was the first reported human incidence of H5N1 for one and a half years was a 39 year-old bus driver which worried many people because they feared that he would have come into contact with many of his passengers and could have given them the disease.

According to the Shenzhen Disease Control Center they said that they had analyzed the virus and that it had infected the man directly from contact with birds and had not come from another person.  They also said that it was not contagious among people and therefore nobody should panic. Unfortunately, the Chinese media outlets have a reputation for being censored and therefore the Chinese public often does not believe what the authorities say.

Nevertheless the Guangdong health department has segregated 120 individuals who had contact with Mr. Chen and checked them for any sign of the bird flu virus just to be on the safe side. The H5N1 bird flu virus is very contagious among birds but it is difficult for humans to contract the virus unless they have been in very close contact with infected poultry. It has not yet been established exactly where Mr. Chen picked up the bird flu virus from.

One theory is that Mr. Chen got the virus from an outbreak which was reported in Hong Kong and which resulted in almost 20,000 birds being slaughtered. Mr. Chen lived just across the river from Hong Kong and it would have been easy for infected birds to cross over.

Since the first H5N1 bird flu virus cases were reported in humans back in 2003 there have been 573 cases leading to 336 deaths according to World Health Organisation figures. The World Health Organization recommends both Tamiflu and Relenza as being the most effective medications to counteract the symptoms of regular flu and the H5N1 avian flu virus.