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Indonesian child dies of bird flu |
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - A 9-year-old Indonesian girl who died this week had bird flu, and the village where she lived is rife with the disease, health officials said on Thursday. And the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that new strains of the H5N1 virus caused some of the fresh outbreaks of bird flu in Thailand and Laos and they appear to have spread from southern China. The girl died on Tuesday in a hospital in West Java's Cikelet village, where there are many sick and dead chickens, said Runizar Ruesin, the head of the health ministry's bird flu information center. Her death takes Indonesia's toll from the disease to 45, the highest of any country. The World Health Organization now says 239 people have been infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus and 140 have died of it. "Three hamlets within the village are currently under investigation," the WHO said in a statement. "Bird flu is rife in Cikelet. You can always find dead or sick chickens there," Ruesin said. A 17-year-old boy in the same village has also tested positive for bird flu, but has stayed at home and refused to be |
treated at the main hospital in Bandung, the provincial capital to the south of Jakarta. The boy's 20-year-old cousin died earlier this month with bird flu-like symptoms but his samples could not be taken. WHO said it was "highly improbable" the boys had infected one another. "As both young men developed symptoms on the same day (26 July), epidemiologists assume that they acquired their infection from a shared environmental source," WHO said. "Teams from local health authorities, the Ministry of Health, and WHO are currently in the three hamlets investigating these cases and assessing the overall situation. Team members include experts in animal health," it added. "We have taken necessary steps in the area. Health and agriculture officials are conducting constant surveillance," health ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyawat said, adding that people who had contact with the boy had been given the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. Indonesia has seen a steady increase in human bird flu deaths this year and the virus is endemic in poultry in nearly all of the provinces of the sprawling archipelago. |
The country, which has been criticized for not doing enough to stamp out H5N1, has shied away from mass culling of poultry so far, citing the expense and the logistical difficulties because of the millions of backyard fowl. The virus remains essentially an animal disease but experts fear it could spark a pandemic if it mutates into a form that can pass easily among people. The FAO said vigorous control measures must be implemented to prevent further spread of the disease in birds and poultry. The U.N. agency said recent outbreaks of avian flu in northeastern Thailand and neighboring Laos were caused by a H5N1 virus strain previously not detected in the region, but similar to a strain found in southern China. "Poultry trade across borders is continuing in Southeast and East Asia despite well-known risks," the FAO said. |
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