# 1530
The evidence, up until now, has suggested there are very few mild cases going undetected. Earlier seroprevalence studies showed little evidence that people in bird flu affected villages had developed antibodies to the virus, indicating prior infection.
Now, a new study out of Cambodia is challenging that assumption.
If mild cases are occurring and going undetected, this becomes a good news-bad news scenario.
- Good news is that virus may not be as deadly as current case counts suggest.
- Bad news, it would mean the virus is more easily transmissible than we think.
One needs to remember this is just one study, and out of nearly 700 blood samples taken, only 1% (7) showed antibodies to the virus. So while valuable research, it is too early to know how reliable the data is.
Phrases like:
- Infections in some children may be going undetected
- Children may be more susceptible
- Mild infection could be the result of
Are indicative of how preliminary this research is.
Jason Gale, one of the finest flu reporters in the business, gives us more information in this report from Bloomberg. Follow the link, you'll want to read the entire article.
Bird Flu Infection May Go Undetected in Some Children (Update1)
By Jason Gale
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu infections in some children may be going undetected because the virus can cause mild or no symptoms, researchers in Cambodia found, indicating more human cases have probably occurred than have been officially recorded.
A study of 674 people exposed to the deadly H5N1 avian influenza in two villages in Cambodia found seven had developed antibodies against the virus, indicating prior infection. All of the cases occurred in people aged 4 to 18, the researchers said in a study presented at a conference in Bangkok today.
The finding indicates more people, particularly children and adolescents, may be contracting the virus without developing the high fever and severe pneumonia that's the hallmark of H5N1 in people. Three of every five reported human cases worldwide have been fatal. Higher rates of milder disease might indicate the virus has found a way to spread more efficiently in humans.
``We need to monitor because the virus can evolve, and this is one of the indicators to see whether it's found a way to penetrate the body,'' said Sirenda Vong, chief of epidemiology with the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, who led the study.
