Second bird flu fatality in China

According to Voice of America, the Guizhou provincial health  department said that the man died of multiple organ failure on Friday.

Avian influenza is a virus hosted by  birds, but that may infect humans. The H5N1 strain of the virus emerged in 1997.  In the last decade, there have been 600 reported cases of humans with bird flu, with a 50% of  fatalities.

Avian influenza virus spreads in the  air and in manure and there is no evidence that the virus can survive in well  cooked meat, accoriding to The Poultry Site.

The Guardian reported that a pause on research involving  lab-engineered strains of H5N1 virus has come to an end. After a year of  voluntary moratorium, scientists can conduct experiments with lab-modified  strains of bird flu virus. The moratorium was self impossed to allow debate  regarding the safety of this kind of research and the measures to be taken in  order to prevent details of the research from “falling into the hands of  bioterrorists”.

The objective of the researcho is to help public health officials prepare for future pandemics that might emerge – in this case if the bird flu virus mutated naturally