The World Health Organization is concerned that the rapid spread of bird flu in East and Southeast Asia may move beyond some countries’ capabilities to control it, raising the risk that the disease could mutate and become transmittable by humans. Laos and China recently became the ninth and tenth Asian countries to be hit with the disease; Laos’s poor public health infrastructure makes the disease there especially worrisome. To date, eight people have died from bird flu, most of them in Vietnam, and none have been contagious to humans. The disease has been spread through contact with feces from infected chickens, so the risk to travelers is minimal, unless they venture into poultry markets. No disease has been contracted through eating chicken.
