New Delhi: Ever since the confirmation of the first death in the country due to avian influenza (bird flu), people are starting to worry about another epidemic. Dr Guleria says that human-to-human infection of the H5N1 virus (bird flu) is very rare and there is no need to panic about this. It may be noted that a 12-year-old boy from Haryana died recently in AIIMS Delhi due to infection with the H5N1 virus. "Virus transmission from birds to humans is very rare and there is no proven case of human to human transmission of H5N1 so far. Currently available epidemiological information suggests that the virus does not readily infect humans and transmission from person to person appears to be rare.

Source: dna July 21, 2021 16:30 UTC