Scientists are warning that the strain of bird flu that killed an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia mutated to better infect humans. The lead researcher of the team that decoded the virus says the finding must be treated with "utmost caution".
Dr Erik Karlsson from the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia told Sky News the virus that infected the girl was different from samples taken from birds. He said there are indications the virus had already passed through a human and evolved before infecting the girl.
The medical science community is on high alert, with health authorities in the UK modelling scenarios for a bird flu pandemic in response to the threat. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US is ramping up its pandemic preparedness and the saitation has been described as "worrying" by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
