No Cases of Bird Flu in Humans

There have been no cases of bird flu in humans so far this year, said Mahmoud Nabavi, deputy head of the Health Ministry’s Center for Managing Communicable Diseases. “Despite avian influenza reported last week in two small poultry farms in Tehran, there have been no cases of transmission of the disease to humans, as the affected poultry numbering 5600 was immediately culled and the farms disinfected,” he told IRNA, allaying concerns following reports of the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain in European and Asian countries. Bird flu caused by the H5N1 virus is a particularly severe form of pneumonia that leads to multi-organ failure in many people who become infected.