Human-to-Human Bird Flu Proved

(Seattle, Washington) A study of a 2006 bird flu outbreak in Indonesia resulted in the finding that the virus has mutated and was transmitted from person to person.

Experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center in Seattle used statistical analysis and a computerized disease-transmission model to show the disease spread between a small number of people in one family.

The chain of infection involved a 10-year-old boy who likely caught the virus from his 37-year-old aunt who had been exposed to dead poultry and chicken feces.

Researchers say the boy then probably passed the virus to his father.

All but one of the flu victims died. All of those who contracted the disease had long, close contact with other ill family members prior to getting sick.

Not good, however it's not a surprise either. Experts have predicted the mutation leading to person-to-person transmission would occur at some point.