Expert warns of virus threat
Ken Shortridge, a professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong, told an inquest into the deaths of five people from the H5N1 virus in 1997 that H9N2, which infected two girls in April, was a potential danger to the public.
At a medical conference in Belgium it was confirmed that the new virus was present in chickens throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Some pigs were also found to be carrying it.
Two girls, aged one and four, the first Hong Kong victims of the new strain of virus, were confirmed to have contracted H9N2 in April.
They have since recovered.
Professor Shortridge said research showed H9N2 might be the driving force behind H5N1.
'The tricky part of H9N2 is that it's been so quiet.
'It's not causing too much trouble in chickens and humans . . . However, H9N2 is much more complicated than H5N1,' he said.
