HEALTH

Warning - Influenza Pandemic Likely Coming

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the specter of human-to-human transmission of deadly H5N1 avian influenza following confirmation that two Vietnamese brothers had contracted the virus and one had died. WHO confirmed that laboratory results had found the two brothers from northern Vietnam had been infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. According to WHO, "All evidence to date suggests that isolated instances of limited, unsustained human-to-human transmission can be expected from avian influenza viruses in humans." Seven of Vietnam's total 27 H5N1-related human deaths have occurred in the last three weeks (first 3 weeks of January 2005).