Human infection associated with outbreak of fowl plague (avian influenza) in the Netherlands – update 27 March

At the beginning of March 2003 an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (A/H7N7) in several Dutch poultry farms was reported (1). On 11 March 2003, several workers, who had been exposed to A/H7N7 infected poultry, developed conjunctivitis. Some of them tested positive for influenza A/H7N7 (2). One week later, two close contacts of a worker with H7N7 infection developed similar eye symptoms. They had also been infected with the avian influenza virus, although they had had no exposure to infected poultry themselves, which strongly suggests human to human transmission of the virus (3).