February 10, 2006

 

Indonesia to check 2 million homes for bird flu starting next week
 

 

The Jakarta Animal Husbandry, Fishery and Maritime Affairs Agency will begin door-to-door inspections for poultry infected with H5N1 avian influenza next week, the Jakarta Post reported Friday.

 

The agency is training 200 volunteers to carry out the checks on more than 2 million households in the greater Jakarta area, the report said, citing agency head Adnan Ahmad.

 

The inspections will focus on areas of the city where H5N1 infected poultry have already been discovered.

 

Meanwhile, local laboratory results confirm that an Indonesian woman from West Java province died of bird flu, an official said.

 

The 23-year-old from Bekasi, a town just east of Jakarta, died overnight in the Sulianti Saroso Hospital, said a hospital official.

 

Blood and swab samples from the victim have been sent to a World Health Organization-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, he said.

 

If those tests come back positive, Indonesia's official human death toll from the virus will climb to 17.

 

The hospital is still observing another 27-year-old female patient also from the same town who tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

 

Bird flu began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 140 million birds.

 

Almost all the deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

 

Indonesia is seen as a potential flashpoint because of its high density of poultry and people.

 

Hariadi Wibidono, a health ministry official, said the source of infection for the two victims from Bekasi was still being investigated, but initial inquiries showed both women had contact with poultry.

 

16 of the 23 confirmed human cases in Indonesia were fatal.