Despite their usual denials over such things, China has admitted that a father and son pair sickened in December actually represented a case of human transmission of bird flu, the H5N1 virus. China remains ground zero for this disease, and the government is less than honest about the situation:

In the case in China, a 52-year-old man and his 24-year-old son in Jiangsu province were diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu within a week of each other last December. At the time, officials from the World Health Organization said they could not rule out the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

After the son died, his father was treated with antivirals and participated in an H5N1 vaccine trial. He survived.

The son’s only exposure to bird flu was at a poultry market, while the father apparently had no direct exposure to sick birds. His only known exposure to bird flu was close contact with his ill son.

Read more here: China confirms human H5N1 transmission .