Limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu might have occurred in an Indonesian family and health experts are tracing anyone who might have had contact with them, the World Health Organisation said.
But a senior WHO official said in Jakarta this was not the first time the world was seeing a family cluster and said that fresh scientific evidence has shown the virus in Indonesia has not mutated to one that can spread easily among people.
World Health Organisation
WHO said today it had no immediate plans to call a meeting of experts to discuss raising its global bird flu alert.
"Right now it does not look like the task force will need to meet immediately, but this is subject to change depending on what comes out of Indonesia," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said, when asked to comment on press reports of an imminent meeting.
Financial markets, however, were spooked on fears the Indonesia cluster could be the start of a pandemic. Currencies in Asia, where most bird flu cases have occurred, fell.
US commodity prices came under pressure while European markets slipped as investors turned jittery.
Concern has been growing about the case in north Sumatra in which seven family members from Kubu Sembilang village died this month. The case is the largest family cluster known to date.
WHO and Indonesian health officials are baffled over the source of the infection but genetic sequencing has shown the H5N1 bird flu virus has not mutated, the UN agency said on its website yesterday. Nor was there sign of the virus spread among villagers.
"To date, the investigation has found no evidence of spread within the general community and no evidence that efficient human-to-human transmission has occurred," the WHO said.