Bird flu

Jill McGiveringová: The list of countries known to have the relatively new and deadly strain of bird flu is rapidly growing. The focus now is on Indonesia where tests will soon confirm whether or not the bird flu which killed several million chickens there is the often fatal H5N1, already confirmed in 5 other countries in the region. A spokesman for the World Health Organisation told the BBC it was clearly spreading, causing serious concern. It was becoming clear, he said, the strain had been around in the region much longer than first thought. That multiplied the risk of human infections, he added, and of the virus mutating, perhaps by attaching itself to human flu, and becoming far more deadly. But so far there's no evidence of direct human to human transmission. Were that to happen, the death rate amongst people could multiply dramatically. VOCABULARY bird flu - ptačí chřipka is spreading - šíří se strain - druh that multiplied the risk of infections - riziko nákazy to znásobilo the virus mutating - že bude vir mutovat transmission - přenos