Bird flu has made a comeback in Nigeria and Japan and killed another person in Indonesia, perhaps revived by winter, experts said on Friday, according to Reuters. The H5N1 avian flu virus had continued to infect flocks in Indonesia and attacked the occasional person, but alarming headlines about its spread had died down in recent months. "The transmission seems to be on the increase now," Dr. David Nabarro, bird flu coordinator for the United Nations, told Reuters in an interview. "There is a pattern of seasonal increases in transmission in the months December through April over the past few years." An official at a Jakarta hospital said a woman had died of bird flu and four people were being treated for symptoms for the H5N1 virus, which many scientists fear could mutate and trigger the next influenza pandemic in people. Her death brought the mortality toll among people from the virus to 159, out of a total of 256 infected since 2003. Earlier this week, South Korea reported a worker had been infected last year without knowing it. The dead woman's husband and son were among those hospitalized as suspected cases of infection, but there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, a senior health official said. In Nigeria, veterinary officials in white protective suits and masks culled more than 20,000 chickens at a farm in the far northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto -- the first time the virus has been reported in birds there. The first African country to be hit by bird flu, Nigeria has not reported any human cases of the disease although experts warn surveillance may not be completely effective and cases may have gone undetected. "There was a lot of movement of people and poultry over the Christmas, New Year and Eid celebrations, and that is what has caused this new outbreak," said Junaidu Maina, head of Nigeria's livestock department.
