Thursday, June 15, 2006
WHO confirms another bird flu death in Indonesia
The World Health Organisation has confirmed an Indonesian girl who died last month was infected with bird flu, a health ministry official said on Thursday, bringing Indonesia’s total confirmed bird flu deaths to 38.
Samples from the 7-year-old girl from Pamulang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, were sent to a WHO laboratory in Hong Kong after local tests showed that she had tested positive for avian influenza. Local tests are not considered definitive.
Indonesia attracted international attention last month when the H5N1 virus killed as many as seven members of a single family in north Sumatra. Experts said there could have been limited human-to-human transmission in this cluster case.
Nyoman Kandun, a director-general at the health ministry, said the WHO laboratory’s results were based on tests from fluid from the girl’s lungs.
“An earlier WHO test of the girl’s nasal swab and fluid from her throat had showed up negative. But then we sent another specimen of fluid from her lung membrane. And that is positive,” Kandun told Reuters.