Maria Cheng
Maria Cheng
birds concern contact humans infected mean obviously seen virus worldwide
We've never seen so many outbreaks of the same virus in so many different regions. Our concern obviously is that humans could potentially come into contact with birds infected with H5N1, which would mean populations worldwide are potentially at risk.
cases gaps given human humans isolated points seeing serious situation surprised
We shouldn't be seeing human cases first, and this points to serious gaps in surveillance. But given the situation in Turkey, I don't think we'd be surprised to see isolated humans cases in surrounding areas.
chances evolve form human seeing spark
The more chances H5N1 has to infect people, the more chances it has to evolve into a form that could spark a pandemic. And the place we're seeing the most human infections right now is Indonesia.
common draw either exposure human hypothesis information possible poultry sick
It is possible that they all had common exposure to sick poultry but it is also possible there may have been human to human transmission. We don't have enough information to draw a hypothesis either way.
beijing cases exposure history human identified informed office province seems somebody
Our office in Beijing was informed of this today. It is in a province that hasn't identified human cases before but it is somebody who seems to have a history of exposure to poultry.
birds certainly cluster easily humans numbers pieces seen sure terms together virus
I'm not sure we've seen a cluster like this in terms of numbers and certainly it's a concern. Is the virus being transmitted more easily from birds to humans, or even from humans to humans? We need to put all the pieces together before we can come to conclusions.
evidence spread surprising
It would not be surprising if it had spread from Turkey, but at the same time, we have no evidence yet that it has.
announced cases turkish
These are all cases that have already been announced (by Turkish authorities).
fast response
The response has been very fast and very transparent.
alert cases couple elevate global last needs pandemic phase risk
Right now these new cases in Turkey, they don't elevate the global risk assessment, so we're still in the same pandemic alert phase that we've been in for the last couple of years. But it's something that needs to be monitored very closely.
extensive good information moment
At the moment we don't have very good information about how extensive these outbreaks are.
infected mammals means
We know that mammals can be infected by H5N1, but we don't know what this means for humans.
keen obviously samples sent
We are obviously keen to have the samples sent abroad.
changing health indication people virus workers
I think really, (illness in) people like health-care workers and first responders would be our first indication that something is changing in the virus to make it more transmissible.