03 April 2013/22 Jumada l-Ula 1434/14 Farvardin 1391/23 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Japanese researchers at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) have been studying the H7N9 virus, they’ve concluded it is possible for it to jump human to human!

Chinese health officials supplied H7N9 samples from the two people that died, and one woman in critical condition.

NIID researchers concluded that all three samples had mutated to infect humans.  The samples came from two different areas, but researchers say they were identical indicating the same strain of H7N9 had rapidly spread over a large area.

They also point out that normally H7 strains are not considered deadly, but humans have no immunity to the new H7N9, and there is no vaccine, so they believe health warnings should be issued.