Saturday, June 10, 2006
Indonesia admits cases of human transmission of bird flu
- An Indonesian minister on June 9 said that human-to-human transmission of bird flu probably occurred in the country’s seven cluster cases, but ruled out a pandemic of H5N1 across the country.
“Limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred in small clusters in the country,” Jakarta Post quoted Coordinating Minister for the People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie as saying, following a meeting with agencies involved in curbing the spread of the disease.
Experts were puzzled by a seven-member cluster in Indonesia’s Sumatra village in May, which led to speculation that human-to-human transmission had occurred among family members.
However, Aburizal emphasized that the public should not be concerned because it was not a pandemic, and the transmission of the virus continued to be from poultry.