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WHO: Indonesia Teen Died of Bird Flu

Posted on: Sunday, 4 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By ZAKKI HAKIM

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A World Health Organization laboratory has confirmed that bird flu killed a 15-year-old Indonesian boy who earlier tested positive to the H5N1 virus in a local lab, a health official said Sunday, bringing the country's toll to at least 37.

The boy, from the town of Tasikmalaya in West Java province, died May 30 after being infected with the virus, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official. The teen had a history of contact with poultry, officials have said.

The death is part of a spike in human bird flu cases in Indonesia.

The WHO laboratory in Hong Kong has not yet confirmed preliminary tests that a 7-year-old girl from the outskirts of Jakarta, who died last week, was positive for the virus, Kandun said. The girl's 10-year-old brother died three days later, but no samples were taken before his burial.

Meanwhile, officials on Sunday said local tests have come back negative for an Indonesian nurse who fell ill after treating two siblings infected with bird flu, amid a surge in deaths from the virus.

"Thank God, the result came back negative," said Hariadi Wibisono, another senior Health Ministry official.

He said specimens would be sent to the Hong Kong lab for confirmation.

The 25-year-old nurse was isolated and given the antiviral drug Tamiflu when she developed a fever and other flu-like symptoms. She fell ill about 10 days after treating a 10-year-old girl and her 18-year-old brother from West Java province, who died hours apart last month of bird flu.

She is improving and will likely be released this week after finishing the full course of Tamiflu, said Dr. Hadi Jusuf of Hasan Sadikin Hospital, where the nurse is being treated.

The nurse's case initially raised concerns that the H5N1 virus may have passed to her from the siblings, but Wibisono said it now appears that she was instead suffering from a seasonal flu.

Indonesia has experienced an explosion of bird flu cases, with an average of one every 2 1/2 days last month.

Last month, six members of a family died of bird flu and a seventh fell ill in the largest family cluster reported since the virus began ripping through Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

An eighth member of the family in the farming village of Kubu Simbelang in North Sumatra province was buried before samples were collected, but WHO considers her part of the cluster.

Experts have not found any link between the relatives and infected birds, which has led them to suspect human-to-human transmission. But no one outside the group of blood relatives has fallen ill and experts say the virus has not mutated.

Bird flu has killed at least 127 people worldwide since late 2003. It is difficult for humans to catch, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form more easily passed between humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Indonesia trails only Vietnam, where 42 people have died, in the number of bird flu deaths.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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