[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia a Step Closer to World's Hardest-Hit Bird Flu Nation With 39th Death

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Bird flu experts to meet amid explosion in number of deaths 

WHO Laboratory Confirms Indonesia's 39th Bird Flu Death

JAKARTA, June 20 (AP)--Indonesia moved a step closer to becoming the world's 
hardest-hit bird flu country Tuesday after tests confirmed a 14-year-old boy 
died 
from the disease, bringing its human toll to 39. 

The boy from Jakarta died last week, and tests sent to a World Health 
Organization-approved laboratory in Hong Kong came back positive, senior Health 
Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono said. The teen had a history of contact with 
dead birds. 

The results were announced a day before some of the world's top bird flu 
experts were set to meet with Indonesian officials to try to map out a plan to get 
a handle on the H5N1 virus. 

The meeting - which brings together scientists from WHO, the U.N. Food and 
Animal Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
among others - comes a month after Indonesia grappled with the world's largest 
reported family cluster. 

Six of seven family members from a remote farming village on Sumatra island 
died after testing positive for the bird flu virus. An eighth relative was 
buried before samples could be taken, but WHO considers her part of the cluster. 

Scientists have not been able to link the infected relatives to contact with 
sick birds and believe limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. 
However, the virus has not mutated and no one outside the family has fallen 
ill. 

Experts fear the current bird flu virus will mutate into a form that is 
highly contagious among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human 
cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. At least 129 people 
have died worldwide since the virus began ravaging Asian poultry in late 2003. 

Indonesia, which logged an average of one death every 2 1/2 days in May 
alone, is on the fast track to becoming the world's hardest hit, trailing only 
Vietnam where 42 people have died. 

The Asian Development Bank's latest outlook report released in April said 
Indonesia's 2006 budget allocates just $14 million to combat the disease, despite 
the government's own estimate that at least 30 times that amount is needed. 

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Bird flu experts to meet amid explosion in number of deaths 

JAKARTA, June 20 (AP): Some of the world's top bird flu experts will meet 
with Indonesian officials this week to build a strategy to fight the disease, a 
month after suspected cases of human-to-human transmission set off 
international alarm bells.

Scientists from the World Health Organization, the U.N. Food and Animal 
Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, 
will work with government officials to try to map out a plan to get a handle 
on the H5N1 virus.

The meeting comes a month after Indonesia grappled with the world's largest 
reported family cluster. Six of seven family members from a remote farming 
village on Sumatra island died after testing positive for the bird flu virus. An 
eighth relative was buried before samples could be taken, but WHO considers 
herpart of the cluster.

Scientists have not been able to link the infected relatives to contact with 
sick birds and believe limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. 
However, the virus has not mutated and no one outside the family has fallen 
ill.

Experts fear the current bird flu virus will mutate into a form that is 
highly contagious among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human 
cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. At least 129 people 
have died worldwidesince the virus began ravaging Asian poultry in late 2003, 38 
of them in Indonesia.

The country is on the fast track to becoming the world's hardest hit, 
trailing only Vietnam where 42 people have died. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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