Nigeria: Bird flu claims first human life in West Africa

Nigeria confirmed the first human death from the H5N1 virus in sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday (January 31) after tests on a dead woman showed she had contracted bird flu. The 22-year-old died after feathering and disembowelling an infected chicken. She was from Lagos, the commercial capital of Africa's most populous country, Information Minister Frank Nweke said. Test on three other victims, one of them the woman's mother, were inconclusive.