Monday May 14, 8:36 PM    
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Indonesia confirms 76th bird flu death*

A pregnant woman in Indonesia has died of bird flu, taking the country's
death toll from the virus to 76, a health ministry official confirmed
Monday.

The woman, 26, who was four months pregnant with her second child, died
on Saturday at a hospital in Medan in North Sumatra, the official said.

She is suspected of having eaten chickens that had earlier died of bird
flu, the health ministry said in a statement late Monday.

Indonesian officials suspected on the weekend that the virus had killed
the woman but conducted a required second set of tests before confirming
bird flu as the cause.

"The results of the second test have come in and they are positive,"
said an official from the ministry's bird flu information centre.

"She is now the 76th human bird flu death for Indonesia," said the
official, identified as Joko.

She began to show symptoms of infection on May 2 and was treated first
at home and then moved to two different hospitals before she died.

The official said 20 other people were undergoing treatment for the
virus in hospitals around Indonesia, the nation worst hit by the virus.

The government had hoped to eradicate bird flu deaths in 2007, but
instead 19 people have now perished this year after contracting the virus.

The latest death comes as the World Health Organisation's annual
assembly of 193 governments meets Monday and will discuss a row with
Indonesia over the sharing of bird flu samples.

The international practice of openly sharing virus samples with foreign
laboratories is considered vital for research into vaccines against the
deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Indonesia halted sample sharing last December because of fears that
multinational drug companies would use the practice to develop costly
vaccines that would be unaffordable for poorer countries.

Indonesia had agreed in March to an immediate resumption, after reaching
a deal with the WHO to develop a new mechanism on sample-sharing.

But nearly two months later, samples have not been sent according to
officials, partly because Indonesia insists a verbal commitment to the
deal is not enough.

The WHO says the H5N1 strain has infected at least 282 people and killed
around 170 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia, since the end of 2003.

Scientists worry the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among
humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

The fear stems from the lessons of past influenza pandemics. A flu
pandemic in 1918, just after the end of World War I, killed 20 million
people worldwide.