# 1423
This is one of those head-scratcher stories, that leave this reader wondering.
Did the WHO spokesman say things, not quoted in this article, that give rise to the headline and narrative?
There appears to be a subtle difference between what the WHO spokesman said, and what the reporter wrote.
The headline `no mutation', and the text "the WHO on Friday ruled out any mutation" appear to go far beyond what John Rainford was quoted as saying. To wit:
"There is no suggestion that the virus has changed into a form that poses a broader risk" - John Rainford.
No sign of bird flu mutation after Pakistani dies: WHO
GENEVA (AFP) - The World Health Organisation on Friday ruled out any mutation of the potentially fatal H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus after a case of inter-human transmission of bird flu may have been detected in Pakistan.
"There is no suggestion that the virus has changed into a form that poses a broader risk," WHO spokesman John Rainford told AFP. "If that had been the case, we would have witnessed more cases of human transmission."
Rainford said that the genetic sequencing of the virus involved in the latest case was being continued.
Laboratory tests have already established that the Pakistani man had been infected with H5N1, even though he had not been in contact with contaminated poultry.
"Because we have an individual not directly exposed to sick birds suggests a limited human-to-human transmission," Rainford had told AFP on Thursday.
