Five Asian countries could join China as targets for the H7N9 bird flu virus that has claimed about a hundred lives since it erupted in March 2013, scientists said Tuesday.Parts of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are at risk because, like China, they have in densely-populated areas. H7N9 initially ignited fears that it could mutate to become easily transmissible between people, which might lead to a global pandemic.
But Chinese officials and the World Health Organisation (WHO) say there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, despite sporadic cases among members of the same family.