Deadly Bird flu confirmed in Bali
Pastor Dale Morgan
Deadly Bird flu confirmed in Bali*
From correspondents in Jakarta
August 13, 2007 05:09pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
HEALTH officials in Bali have confirmed that a woman and her daughter
died there from the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza.
The deaths of the 29-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter were
the first from bird flu in Bali and took the nation's toll to 83, a
health official said.
The woman, Ni Luh Putu Sri Windani, lived in the northwest of the
island, far from the major tourist centres.
She died yesterday, while her daughter died on August 3, said Bayu
Krisnamurti, head of Indonesia's national bird flu commission.
"Both people are positive, from (tests at) the Eikman Institute and the
health ministry's lab," he said.
In Indonesia two tests must be returned positive before a human
infection is confirmed.
Chickens in Ms Windani's neighbourhood were positively infected, said
Joko Suyono of the Bird Flu Information Centre in Jakarta.
Ms Windani, from a village in the district of Jembrana, was suffering
from a high fever before dying of multiple organ failure, said Ken
Wirasandi, a doctor at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar.
Mr Suyono said there had been sick chickens around the woman's house and
many had died suddenly in recent weeks.
"The villagers didn't burn the carcasses. Instead they buried them or
fed them to pigs," he said.
Contact with sick fowl is the most common way for humans to contract the
H5N1 virus.
The woman had started showing symptoms more than a week ago, but was
only admitted to hospital six days later.
She was transferred to Denpasar on Friday, where she was treated in the
isolation unit, Mr Suyono said.
A two-year-old neighbour of Ms Windani has also been admitted to
hospital in Denpasar.
A spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Health and Ageing said
the situation was being closely monitored.
Infected poultry was first found on the northwest of the island - far
from the main tourist areas - last year, when hundreds of birds were
culled but no human infections were found.
Indonesia reported its first human bird flu case in July 2005 and has
since confirmed 81 deaths, the highest number of any nation.
Scientists worry the bird flu virus could mutate into a form easily
spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to
kill millions.
The virulent Indonesia strain has killed more than 190 people since it
surfaced in 2003.
- With AAP, Reuters