BBC Jakarta confirms human bird flu deaths

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>BBC DAILY E-MAIL: UK EDITION

>Wednesday, 20 July, 2005, 8:00 GMT 01:00 -07:00:US/Pacific

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>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4698863.stm

>

Jakarta confirms bird flu deaths

Test results have confirmed that three people in Indonesia have died

from bird flu, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has said.

 

The victims - a man and his two young daughters - are the country's

first human fatalities from the disease.

 

Because they had no known contact with poultry, their cases have

raised fears of human-to-human transmission.

 

But the WHO downplayed the concerns, stressing that more

investigation was needed.

 

Since January 2004, more than 50 people are known to have died of

the bird flu virus in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

 

Millions of birds have died across Asia in the last few years, many

of them culled in an effort to stem the disease.

 

The Indonesian health minister announced on Friday that scientists

suspected a deadly strain of bird flu had led to the deaths of a

38-year-old man and his two daughters, aged one and nine.

 

H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS

Principally an avian disease, first seen in humans in Hong Kong, 1997

Almost all human cases thought to be contracted from birds

Isolated cases of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong and

Vietnam, but none confirmed

 

On Wednesday she confirmed this. " Test results from a Hong Kong

laboratory which I received this morning confirmed they were positive

for the H5N1 virus, " she told reporters.

 

Ms Supari has said that she is concerned the victims could have

contracted the disease via human-to-human transmission, because they

are not known to have been in contact with poultry.

 

But World Health Organization representative Georg Petersen said he

was not too concerned yet that the three victims had no known contact

with sick birds.

 

He said a more in-depth investigation was needed, adding that in

other countries the source of infection was often not known straight

away.

 

The three victims had lived in Tangerang on the outskirts of the

capital Jakarta.

 

More than 300 people who had been in close contact with the family

have been placed under medical surveillance.

 

Indonesia has reported cases of bird flu in poultry in several

provinces this year and recently confirmed that a farm worker had

tested positive for the virus.

 

But until now there have been no human fatalities from bird flu in

the country.

 

So far humans have only contracted bird flu after coming into

contact with infected animals.

 

But the real fear is that the virus might develop into a form which

can be transmitted from person to person, raising the possibility of

a global pandemic.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4698863.stm

 

Published: 2005/07/20 09:36:14 GMT

 

 

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