Bird Flu Hatches in China

In 1997, Hong Kong was almost the birthplace of a disastrous pandemic. A strain of avian flu called H5N1 leaped the species barrier and infected 18 people, killing six, before the slaughter of the city's 1.4 million chickens helped stop the spread. Last week, alarm bells rang anew when a local 33-year-old man and his nine-year-old son contracted a similar virus. The father died of pneumonia Feb. 17, while the son remains in stable condition. Officials say the victims were probably infected through contact with chickens while visiting China's Fujian province, and that until H5N1 is able to pass from one human to another, the threat of epidemic is miniscule. But if a patient with human flu contracted the avian variety, it could spawn a lethal genetic hybrid. "If it gets as transmittable as human-to-human flu viruses, we are basically looking at a pandemic," says Dr. Malik Peiris, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist. The 1997 outbreak came in the fall; "We were lucky," says Dr. Paul K.S. Chan, a microbiologist with Chinese University of Hong Kong. But now, in the middle of flu season, there is an increased chance of genetic mixing. With experts from the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Surveillance network on their way, a nervous public is hoping to get lucky again.