Bird Flu Epidemic Flares Again in Asia*

By MARGIE MASON,
AP Medical Writer

HANOI, Vietnam - Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human
deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh outbreaks plaguing
other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.

Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd
death on Friday. A 47-year-old man died a day earlier in a Jakarta
hospital, said Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono. The man fell ill
on Dec. 2 and was admitted with flu-like symptoms, becoming Indonesia's
115th person infected with the disease.

In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry
this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this
month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the
virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's
17th bird flu death.

The two were believed to have eaten a traditional dish known as
"beggar's chicken," in which the bird is wrapped in lotus leaves and
baked. However, the cause of infection remained unclear.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, and
experts say that no human bird flu cases have ever been traced to eating
properly cooked poultry or eggs.

The father is recovering after taking the antiviral Tamiflu, said Hans
Troedsson, World Health Organization representative in China. More than
80 people who had contact with the family were being monitored for symptoms.

Local animal health officials said last week no H5N1 outbreaks had been
detected among the province's poultry, but Troedsson said sick birds
typically are not reported prior to human deaths in China _ a sign the
country's surveillance systems need to be improved.

The virus has killed 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian
poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the WHO.

Scientists say it is impossible to predict what the H5N1 virus will do,
but more bird flu outbreaks often occur when temperatures drop as winter
sets in.

Officials in Pakistan were investigating the country's first suspected
bird flu cases Friday after two poultry farm workers died this week
after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms in Peshawar, said
Khushdil Khan, medical superintendent of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Blood samples were sent to the Health Ministry in Islamabad for testing,
but the results have not been confirmed, Khan said. Pakistan has
grappled with bird flu outbreaks among poultry for the past two years,
but no human cases have been reported.

Meanwhile, the disease has resurfaced in several provinces across
Vietnam in recent months, killing or forcing the slaughter of thousands
of birds. So far, 46 people have died from the virus nationwide.

Hong Kong closed its famed Mai Po bird sanctuary to the public for three
weeks starting Friday after a wild gray heron discovered nearby tested
positive for the virus. Russia and Poland also have experienced recent
outbreaks among poultry, but neither have detected human cases.

___

Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta, Indonesia; Audra Ang
in Beijing; and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan contributed to this report.