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First cases reported of bird flu infecting the brain

Infection Control Monitor, February 18, 2005

A report in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine discusses a finding by Vietnamese physicians that bird flu can infect the brain.

The report is based on two cases involving Vietnamese children who succumbed to encephalitis and were later found to be infected with the virus. Up until then, people infected with the bird flu suffered only respiratory illnesses.

Researchers say that the cases involving the two children show that the effect of the virus is more widespread than previously believed.

Healthcare officials expressed concern that there is little knowledge about how the two children contracted the illness.

More than 120 million poultry were destroyed in Asia between January and March of 2004 in an effort to halt the spread of the illness. The World Health Organization statistics show 52 cases of human infection with the virus in Thailand and Vietnam last year, 39 of which were fatal.

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