Large bird flu cluster emerges

A team of experts from the World Heath Organization (WHO) is making its way north in Pakistan to investigate a cluster of at least eight cases of avian flu in people living near the Afghan border. They will be seeking to establish whether the disease is spreading, and whether the cases were caused by human-to-human transmission.

Cases of bird flu continue to occur worldwide, mostly in Indonesia, and this is the colder time of year when flu is expected to hit hardest in the northern hemisphere. But this latest outbreak is worrying in that it involves the biggest batch of closely related cases since a cluster of eight infected people was reported in Indonesia in May 2006.

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071217/full/news.2007.383.html