Organisation asks for details after death of soldier in 2003 found to be bird flu
The World Health Organisation is trying to find out from mainland authorities if more human H5N1 cases have been found in retrospective tests after scientists discovered that a man who died in 2003 had contracted the virus, which causes bird flu.
A letter from the scientists in the New England Journal of Medicine last Thursday has drawn international attention to the possibility, and led to questions about the number of human bird-flu cases the mainland may have seen before it announced the first case last October.
Roy Wadia, the WHO's spokesman in Beijing, said yesterday that the organisation was eager to know whether any other patients were tested retrospectively and whether any of these tested positive for bird flu.
'We also want to know if other samples were also tested for H5N1 and if there are other positive outcomes that have been shared internally in the [mainland] government,' Mr Wadia said.
'This case does raise the possibility that there are other cases we need to know about.'