Japan Tests Show 77 People Exposed to Mild Bird Flu

Japan's Health Ministry said blood tests conducted over five months showed 77 poultry workers had been exposed to a mild form of avian influenza. The so-called H5N2 strain found in the workers is different from the H5N1 strain, which has killed as many as 76 people worldwide since 2003. The lethal H5N1 strain, which passes from infected birds to humans, has reached Turkey after spreading out of Asia and into Russia and China.

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases administered the tests at poultry farms in Ibaraki and Saitama prefectures adjacent to Tokyo, the ministry said in a statement on its Web site. The blood samples were drawn from 353 poultry farm workers their family members from the end of June to the end of December. Read More ....

Source: Bloomberg