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Indonesia tests boy for bird flu after sister dies

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 02:12 CST

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian toddler died on Tuesday and was being tested for bird flu, several days after his 13-year-old sister died of the deadly H5N1 virus according to local tests, a senior Health Ministry official said.

Hariadi Wibisono, the ministry's director of control of animal-borne diseases, said the latest local test results on the 3-year-old boy were not conclusive on whether he had bird flu. An initial result had earlier shown he was positive for the virus.

"He is a borderline case so we need to have more tests," Wibisono told Reuters.

Wibisono on Monday had said another sibling, a 15-year-old girl from the same family that came from the West Java town of Indramayu, also had bird flu.

However, latest local results on her were negative, he said.

Outside laboratories recognized by the World Health Organization have confirmed 12 deaths in Indonesia and five cases where patients have survived. It is usually some days before confirmation is available.

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.

It is confirmed to have killed 79 people in six countries since late 2003.

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 of 17,000 islands and 220 million people.

Source: REUTERS

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