WHO confirms bird flu death in Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization has
confirmed an Indonesian girl who died last month was infected
with bird flu, a health ministry official said on Thursday,
bringing Indonesia’s total confirmed bird flu deaths to 38.

Samples from the 7-year-old girl from Pamulang, on the
outskirts of Jakarta, were sent to a WHO laboratory in Hong
Kong after local tests showed that she had tested positive for
bird flu. Local tests are not considered definitive.

Indonesia attracted international attention last month when
the H5N1 virus killed as many as seven members of a single
family in north Sumatra. Experts said there could have been
limited human-to-human transmission in this cluster case.

Nyoman Kandun, a director-general at the health ministry,
said the WHO laboratory’s results were based on tests from
fluid from the girl’s lungs.

“An earlier WHO test of the girl’s nasal swab and fluid
from her throat had showed up negative. But then we sent
another specimen of fluid from her lung membrane. And that is
positive,” Kandun told Reuters.

Another health ministry official had earlier said that two
days before the girl died, her 10-year-old brother had also
died after showing flu-like symptoms, but health officials did
not manage to obtain his samples.

The family reported that a number of chickens near their
house died before the children fell sick.

Indonesia has seen a steady rise in the number of human
infections and deaths since its first known outbreak of H5N1 in
poultry in late 2003.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but
scientists are worried the virus could mutate to a form easily
transmitted between humans. That could trigger a pandemic and
kill millions.