A human case of bird flu has been confirmed in Indonesia. The man tested positive for antibodies but has no symptoms. Infectious disease experts are very concerned that the bird flu could mutate into a more virulent form that could spread easily from human to human. So far the majority of the cases have involved humans catching the virus directly from poultry and there have only been a couple isolated unconfirmed cases where a human caught the virus from close contact with a sick human. Scientists also recently confirmed the virus in pigs which is alarming because pigs are believed to transfer flu viruses to human more easily than birds. The BBC reports that 53 people have now died in Southeast Asia as a result of bird flu.
A farm worker in South Sulawesi has tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, although he has shown no outward symptoms of the disease.
In the past 18 months at least 53 people across Asia are known to have died of bird flu - all of them in Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand.
