S.Korea Confirms Human Bird Flu Carriers

South Korea said Friday it had identified four human carriers of the bird flu virus, but none had developed any symptoms of the disease.

The state-run Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that four workers who had slaughtered poultry from 2003 to 2004 had tested positive for avian influenza, the Korea Times reported Friday.

However, none of the four had suffered flu-like symptoms or any other illnesses believed to have been related to bird flu infection, the agency said.

Nearly 400 South Korean poultry farms were affected by bird flu between December 2003 and March 2004, causing 5.3 million poultry to be destroyed, but no human cases were reported at the time.

The virus has killed at least 72 people in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam since late 2003.

Korean health authorities had been on high alert over a possible bird flu epidemic after outbreaks of the disease were recently reported in China, Russia and Mongolia.