[] [BTBBT Daily - 1/3]Call for calm after bird flu death

--> THE strain of H5N1 bird flu that killed a 39-year-old bus driver in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is not transmissible between humans, a health agency said yesterday as it appealed for calm following the country's first reported case of the disease in humans in 18 months.

Genetic analysis indicated that the virus spread directly from poultry to the victim, who died last Saturday, the Shenzhen Disease Control Center said.

"Though it is highly pathogenic to human beings, the virus cannot spread among people. There is no need for Shenzhen citizens to panic," it said. "The virus found in the patient was 90 percent similar to H5N1 viruses previously isolated in ducks in China, which suggested that the man was very likely to have been infected through direct contact with a bird."

H5N1 rarely infects humans and usually only those who come into close contact with diseased poultry. Scientists are closely watching the virus for any signs it is becoming more easily transmissible from human to human.

The bus driver, surnamed Chen, developed a fever on December 21 and was admitted to hospital on December 25. Health Ministry experts confirmed he was infected with H5N1.

Health authorities were trying to figure out where he was infected.

The health department of Guangdong Province said 120 people who had close contact with Chen had not developed any abnormal symptoms.

Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection said yesterday that the virus strain was very similar to that recently found in wild birds in Hong Kong. An analysis of its genes also found that the virus can be treated by amantadine, an antiviral drug.

The virus is normally found in birds but can occasionally jump to people. Researchers worry that the virus could mutate into a form that would spread easily between humans.

On Saturday, the Guangdong Department of Agriculture said no epidemic of bird flu among poultry had been reported in the province.

Chen's death came a week after two dead birds tested positive for the virus in Hong Kong, which is just across a river from Shenzhen.

More than 19,000 birds at a Hong Kong market were slaughtered and imports and sales of live poultry were banned for three weeks after a chicken carcass tested positive for H5N1. Tests later confirmed that an Oriental magpie robin found dead on December 17 was also infected.

The World Health Organization says globally 336 people have died from 573 confirmed bird flu cases since 2003.

China's last reported human case of H5N1 was in June 2010. A pregnant 22-year-old woman from central Hubei Province died after being exposed to sick and dead poultry.