Indonesian girl dies of bird flu, local test shows

JAKARTA (Reuters) – A 13-year-old Indonesian girl died of
bird flu at the weekend while two others from her family have
tested positive for the H5N1 virus, a health ministry official
said on Monday, citing the results of local tests.

If confirmed by outside laboratories recognized by the
World Health Organization, the case would take total known
deaths in Indonesia from the avian flu to 13 and the number who
have had bird flu to 20.

“We found three positive bird flu cases in one family
coming from Indramayu, West Java,” said the official, Hariadi
Wibisono.

He said the girl died in an Indramayu hospital while her
15-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother had been sent for
treatment at a hospital in Jakarta designated to care for bird
flu patients.

“A lot of fowls died around the neighborhood where they
lived. But we don’t know yet whether these fowls were carrying
the virus. We sent a team there to investigate this morning.”

The H5N1 virus is not known to pass easily between humans
at the moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability
and set off a global pandemic that might kill millions of
people.

The highly pathogenic strain is endemic in poultry in parts
of Asia, and has affected birds in two-thirds of the provinces
in Indonesia, an archipelago about 17,000 islands and 220
million people.

The country has millions of chickens and ducks, many in the
yards of rural or urban homes, raising the risk of more humans
becoming infected with a virus that is confirmed to have killed
79 people in six countries since late 2003.

This includes recent cases in Turkey, the first human
infections outside East Asia.

Experts say the H5N1 virus could become more active in the
colder months in affected regions.

And there are fears there could be more cases in China,
Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia later this month during the
Lunar New Year when chicken will be an integral part of family
reunion celebrations.