Belgian treated for bird flu symptoms in Brussels

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A Belgian who had been visiting China has been admitted to hospital in Brussels with symptoms of bird flu, the Belgian Food Agency, a government body, said on Wednesday.

The agency said it has begun tests to see if the patient, now in quarantine, has contracted the H5N1 virus but said it was unlikely to be the case.

“Given that the patient does not have breathing difficulties, the chances of contamination by the H5N1 virus are estimated to be weak,” said the agency in a statement.

It said the Saint-Pierre Hospital, in the south of the capital, had contacted health inspectors after admitting the patient, who has not been identified.

A spokesman for Belgian health minister Rudy Demotte told Reuters that the Scientific Institute for Health, which is carrying out the tests, would announce provisional results on Wednesday evening.

“This test will know 90 percent if it is bird flu or not,” said Karim Ibourki.

Further tests will be carried out on Thursday to ascertain for certain if the patient has caught H5N1.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday that bird flu has infected 175 people, killing 96 of them since 2003, with the victims contracting the virus from infected birds.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that can pass from human to human, sparking a pandemic. 

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