November 30, 2005

 

Local lab tests show Indonesian woman died of bird flu

 

 

Indonesian tests have confirmed that a 25-year-old woman who died overnight in a Jakarta hospital had the bird flu virus, a hospital official said Wednesday.

 

However, Dr Ilham Patu said the results were yet to be confirmed in a Hong Kong laboratory. If they came back positive, her death would bring to eight the number of human victims in the country, he said.

 

Indonesian tests are generally reliable, but the World Health Organization does not recognise cases unless they are confirmed in one of its accredited laboratories in Hong Kong.

 

Patu also said that two younger brothers of a 16-year-old boy currently being treated in hospital for bird flu died several days before he fell ill, showing symptoms of the virus.

 

The 16-year-old is a confirmed case of bird flu.

 

Patu said the two died before doctors had taken samples from them, so "it could not be proved" whether they had contracted the virus or whether it had been transmitted directly between the brothers.

 

Health experts were closely watching possible "clusters" of cases within families or neighbourhoods for signs that the virus was being passed between humans.

 

So far, most human cases of the disease have been traced to contact with infected birds. But experts fear a human flu pandemic if the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus mutates into a form that passes easily between people.

 

At least 68 people have died from the H5N1 bird flu virus since it emerged in Asia in 2003.