# 909
The Options VI conference (Options for Influenza Control VI) is going on in Toronto, Canada this week and number of doctors and scientists are presenting papers and presentations. A late edition to this conference is a presentation on the recent H7N2 outbreak in Wales.
With 4 people testing positive, and 3 of those hospitalized, it appears that H7N2 is capable of producing more than mild symptoms. As an avian virus that has recently jumped to humans, that could spell trouble.
Analysis: Bird flu fears reignited
Published: June 19, 2007 at 2:34 PM
By ED SUSMAN
TORONTO, June 19 (UPI) -- While the threat of a bird flu pandemic continues to hang over the world, authorities in the United Kingdom now believe a second strain of avian flu -- previously considered of little human risk -- does indeed pose a real danger to people.
"When you have to hospitalize someone for respiratory illness in the U.K., where hospital beds are hard to allocate, then the person has a serious illness," said Jonathan Nguyen-Van-Tam, a senior lecturer at Public Health Laboratory Services in London.
"In this outbreak, we had four people who tested positive for H7 influenza strain, and three of them were hospitalized," he told United Press International. "One person was a candidate for intensive care before he finally came around.
"I think we need to reconsider the H7 strain on the basis of this outbreak," Nguyen-Van-Tam said in reporting how British authorities dealt with the disease encountered on small farms in Wales in the spring of this year.
He presented the report in a special late-breaker session at the Options for the Control of Influenza VI conference in Toronto, attended by more than 1,400 healthcare professionals.
While we watch H5N1 with the greatest intensity, there are other influenza strains out there that have similar potential for sparking the next pandemic. H7N2 is just one of them.
For more information, read It Isn't Just Bird Flu.
