Vietnam’s Bird Flu Virus Different from Korea’s

The virus of bird flu that broke out in Korea was confirmed to have a genotype different from the one that has recently caused deaths in Vietnam.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) revealed on January 26 that the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s close examination of the Korean bird flu virus’ infectivity to the human body, as requested by NIH, brought this preliminary result.

The CDC confirmed that the genotype of bird flu virus outbreak in Korea is different from the one in Vietnam and reported that the route of inflow was accordingly thought to be different.

“The result of the CDC’s final gene analysis may be released sometime next week, and it will take a longer time to get the results of animal experiments on mammals that are intended to ascertain the virus’s infectivity to human body,” said an NIH source.

The source added that “there is no risk because the results of serum examinations on 39 people suspected of being infected by the bird flu were all negative; their serum will be sent to CDC for close examination.”

The NIH revealed that all of the 1,594 who reside in the most high-risk areas are all right, with none exhibiting abnormal symptoms, along with the final 167 in Yangsan, which is one of the bird flu outbreak areas under observation that was reported within the observation period of twelve days.

The infectivity to human body that the bird flu virus outbreak in Korea has is thought to be confirmed according to the results of the CDC’s final gene analysis and animal experiments.

Dong-Won Kim daviskim@donga.com