Until this week , no cases of human-to-human transmission of the deadly bird flu virus that broke out in China this year had been reported . But now , researchers say they believe a woman in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi probably caught the H7N9 virus from her father . The woman , 32 , most likely became infected when she was looking after her father at his bedside in the hospital in March , according to a study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal . Both patients eventually died . The woman had no known exposure to poultry , the study said . `` Our findings reinforced that the novel virus possesses the potential for pandemic spread , '' the study 's authors wrote . But in the case they studied , they said `` the transmissibility was limited and non-sustainable . '' In April , the World Health Organization warned the H7N9 virus was `` one of the most lethal '' that doctors and medical investigators had faced in recent years . The virus has caused 132 human infections resulting in 43 deaths since February , Chinese state media reported last month . The rate of infections seen earlier this year has dropped off dramatically . Bird flu puts spotlight on age-old traditions in China .
The H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China killed at least 43 people this year . Until now , it was thought that all the infections came from birds . But a new report says a woman in China probably contracted it from her father . It says the limited case of the flu has ` ` potential for pandemic . ''