Analysts said with more human infections by the bird flu, some leisure travelers might cut back their trips to China.
Since first emerging in 1997 in Hong Kong, the bird flu has spread across poultry flocks in nine East Asian countries.
The bird flu, H5N1, has the kill rate of over 60% in which 300 out of 500 infections resulted in death.
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We have also had a few health scares to keep our minds occupied - the Bird Flu scare, fish (red-tides), beef, and pork.
The bird flu outbreak coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak that killed at least 349 people in China.
To make matters worse, the bird flu, an especially deadly strain, has recently been transmitted for the first time from person to person in Thailand.
But in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Thai doctors report two cases of apparent human-to human transmission of the bird flu.
If the bird flu virus were to be mutating into a form more easily transmissible among humans, the risk of a global pandemic would greatly increase.
The bird flu, so-called H5N1, has top epidemiologists across the world on edge because of its potential to mutate into a new strain that no one would be immune to and that could easily spread among humans.
The bird flu outbreak is also on the front pages of many Hong Kong newspapers and it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak that killed at least 349 people on the mainland, triggering a global epidemic.
Flu viruses can swap genes with each other, so if someone carrying a human flu virus catches the new bird flu, the two strains could mingle inside the victim's body, creating a new, highly contagious and lethal human plague.
Turning to the H7N9 bird flu virus, the death toll rose to seven on Monday with the death of a 64-year-old man in Shanghai, Beijing Times reports.
Health authorities are testing a family infected by H7N9 in Shanghai for human-to-human transmission of the new bird flu strain, The Beijing News reports.
Two new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were discovered in Shanghai yesterday, bringing the total in the country to 18, the government-published Shanghai Daily reported today.
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Another five new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China yesterday, increasing the total in the country to 43, the state-run Shanghai Daily Newspaper reported today.
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Four new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were found in China yesterday, increasing the total in the country to 28, the state-run Shanghai Daily Newspaper reported today, citing Reuters.
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Since China reported the first human infections of the new bird flu virus, known as H7N9, on March 31, authorities have had to compete with the online rumor mill.
Six people have died after being infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus, according to Chinese state media Friday.
His microblog is among a number of sites that have been tracking the government's response to the new bird flu.
"The H7N9 bird flu is currently approaching, " Yang Yu, a commentator with state broadcaster CCTV, said in a post on his microblog.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese airlines, which were among the hardest-hit companies during the 2003 SARS outbreak, tumbled amid the bird-flu worries.
It is distinct from the H5N1 bird flu virus that has caused more than 360 deaths worldwide since it was found in humans in 2003.
The last thing Mr de Villepin needed was the bird-flu scare.
Past experiments have shown it to make viruses -- including the H5N1 bird flu virus -- more likely to infect ferrets, which are commonly used in flu research.
The new bird flu virus outbreak continues to dominate media headlines, as China Central Television reports 14 diagnosed cases and five deaths in the Yangtze River Delta region.
The H5N1 bird flu can be deadly to people, but as far as scientists know, it does not easily pass from person to person by way of respiratory droplets -- yet.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post says there is still hope in battling the deadly bird flu as a 67-year-old man in Hangzhou and a four-year-old boy in Shanghai are both recovering from the virus.
Last year's flu-shot shortage was scary enough, but now scientists see the specter of a bona fide pandemic if the bird-flu strain known has H5N1 were to mutate into an infection that could spread to people.
Experts urged Chinese health authorities to keep testing healthy birds, saying the H7N9 virus can infect birds without causing disease, making it harder to detect than the H5N1 bird flu virus that is more familiar to Asian countries.
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