6 in Indonesian family die of bird flu

An Indonesian family infected with bird flu may have passed the disease among themselves rather than individually catching it from poultry, but the World Health Organization is leaving its pandemic alert level unchanged, the agency said Wednesday.

Six of seven people in the extended family in northern Sumatra who caught the disease have died, the most recent on Monday. An eighth person who died was buried before tests could be conducted, but she was considered to be among those infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

WHO is investigating whether the strain was spread among family members, although it said Wednesday there was no evidence the virus had mutated to a form that will spread more easily between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic.