Bird flu strain infects human for 1st time

A strain of bird flu that scientists thought could not infect people has shown up in a Taiwanese woman, a nasty surprise that shows scientists must do more to spot worrisome flu strains before they ignite a global outbreak, doctors say. On a more hopeful front, a company on Wednesday reported encouraging results from its first human tests of a possible vaccine against a different type of bird flu that has been spreading through Asia since first appearing in China last spring that is feared to have pandemic potential. The woman, 20, was hospitalized in May with a lung infection. After being treated with Tamiflu and antibiotics, she was released. One of her throat swabs was sent to the Taiwan Centres for Disease Control. Experts there identified it as the H6N1 bird flu, widely circulating in chickens on the island. The patient, who was not identified, worked in a deli and had no...