No. WHO teams in Viet Nam and Thailand are supporting governments in the design and conduct of studies needed to detect the earliest stage of human-to-human transmission. In parallel activities, laboratories in the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network are urgently conducting studies on both human and avian viruses, obtained in the current outbreaks. These studies are also expected to shed some light on the origins and characteristics of the currently circulating H5N1 strain.

    Moreover, a new virus adapted for efficient human-to-human transmission would spread very rapidly, and health authorities would know very quickly that a completely new virus had emerged. There is no evidence, to date, that this has occurred.

(World Health Organization's Official Site January 28, 2004)