This type of bird flu is H9N2 as opposed to the far more dangerous one H5N1...

In Hong Kong the Ministry of Health has confirmed that there has been a human case of bird flu. Now before you go running off to close your windows and lock your doors as well as confine yourself to your house in anticipation of the pandemic sweeping the world just make sure you read the rest of this story.

The type of bird flu that was found in the patient (who was a nine month old baby) is one that is of a much less dangerous type. The actual medical term for this type of bird flu is H9N2 as opposed to the far more dangerous one H5N1, which is what the world’s scientists are panicking about. The H9N2 version of bird flu is pretty harmless especially when compared to H5N1. In fact this is the first case of this version of bird flu in Hong Kong in three years and it hardly made headline news when it was found.

The baby who got the bird flu had been taken to a poultry market a day before it became ill and started to run an extremely high fever. The patient was taken to the hospital and is now recovered but is still under observation and all family members have been subjected to blood tests to make sure that they have not also caught the virus.

While the case is not that serious the health authorities in Hong Kong felt that they should inform the World Health Organisation and may be sending them samples of the virus so that they may be used for future research. In 1999 there were two cases in humans of the H9N2 bird flu virus and in the year 2003 there was one human case of the same virus. In all three cases the people made a full recovery.