Does human infection with H5N1 happen often?
A No, only very rarely. The first documented human infections with the H5N1 avian strain occurred in Hong Kong in 1997. In that first outbreak, 18 people were hospitalised and six of them died. The source of infection in all cases was traced to contact with diseased birds on farms and in live poultry markets. The human cases coincided with outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in poultry.
