# 1366
Helen Branswell, medical reporter extraordinaire for the Canadian Press, has put together a solid piece of reporting on the Pakistan situation.
The number of cases, confirmed or suspected, has increased to as many as 9, including one doctor who treated infected patients.
By all means, read the entire article.
Pakistan H5N1 cases may involve human transmission
Updated Sat. Dec. 15 2007 10:12 AM ET
Helen Branswell, medical reporter, The Canadian Press
Authorities in Pakistan have announced that country's first reported cases of H5N1 avian flu in a cluster of family members which may have involved human-to-human transmission.
There was some confusion Saturday about how many people had tested positive for the virus, with Pakistan announcing six cases but an official of the World Health Organization suggesting as many as nine people may have tested positive for the virus in that country.
The WHO spokesperson said investigations are still underway to try to determine how the various people became infected, but some human-to-human spread is possible.
"We can't rule it out,'' WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl said from Geneva.
"There are other plausible explanations.... We don't know enough at this point. And in some of these cases, one never will know enough.''
The cluster of cases involved four brothers and two cousins living in the country's North West Frontier Province. Two of the brothers died, one without having been tested.
A doctor who treated members of the family also has tested positive for H5N1, Hartl said. But she was not tested with the standard diagnostic assay used to detect H5N1 infection and further testing is needed to determine if she is indeed a case.
