May 19, 2005

Indonesia to test a worker again for bird flu

Indonesia is attempting find a poultry worker to test him for bird flu again. The first test was inconclusive, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.

After the potentially deadly disease emerged in Indonesia in 2003, authorities are testing specimens from workers at poultry farms as part of a monitoring programme put in place.

Umar Fahmi, the health ministry's director general of communicable disease eradication, told reporters the poultry worker who required re-testing was in South Sulawesi province in eastern Indonesia, where outbreaks have been reported in poultry since the start of the year.

So far, there have been no reports of people in Indonesia being infected by the bird flu virus, which has killed 36 Vietnamese, 12 Thais and four Cambodians since the disease swept across much of the Asia region starting in late 2003.

The World Health Organisation fears the virus could mutate into a form which can pass easily among humans and trigger a global pandemic that could kill millions.

The Indonesian health ministry has increased surveillance in affected parts of Java and eastern Indonesia to try and identify possible cases of human infection.

On Tuesday, health officials in Vietnam reported a second human case of in a month.