December 19, 2005

Indonesian tests show boy died of bird flu
 

Local tests showed that an eight-year-old boy in Indonesia had died of bird flu, Health Ministry officials said Monday as they awaited confirmation from the World Health Organization.

It was not immediately clear if the boy, who died last week in a dense residential area of the Indonesian capital, had contact with sick birds, said Hariadi Wibisono.

A WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong has so far confirmed nine human deaths linked to the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in Indonesia.