Indonesia woman dies of bird flu, local tests show
The Star, 23 Feb 2006

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 27-year-old Indonesian woman who lives in the capital has died of bird flu, a Health Ministry official said on Wednesday, citing local hospital tests. 

If confirmed by outside laboratories recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the woman will be the 20th Indonesian to die from avian flu. 

"The (local) tests of the woman from East Jakarta who died this week show it's positive," said Hariadi Wibisono, head of control of animal-borne diseases at the Health Ministry. 

Wibisono said the woman died on Monday after being admitted to the Sulianti Saroso hospital in Jakarta, which is designated to treat patients

showing bird flu symptoms. 

Hospital spokesman Ilham Patu said the woman had contact with dead chickens in her neighborhood. 

The WHO has confirmed 26 cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in people in Indonesia. 

In a bid to combat bird flu, the government plans to distribute the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to community health centres in high-risk areas such as Jakarta and provinces on Java island, the Koran Tempo newspaper on Wednesday quoted the health minister as saying. 

"Hopefully in one or two months we will distribute them," Siti Fadillah Supari said. 

Many governments have stockpiled Tamiflu to ward off a possible bird flu pandemic. 

The virus has spread to fowl in Europe and Africa and the WHO has said the disease has killed 92 people worldwide. 

But it has not mutated to allow easy transmission between people, a step experts say that would trigger a pandemic in which millions might die because humans would have no immunity to the mutated strain.