Indonesian Woman Dies of Bird Flu
Pastor Dale Morgan
Indonesian Woman Dies of Bird Flu*
By NINIEK KARMINI
The Associated Press
Sunday, August 20, 2006; 5:08 AM
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A woman has died of bird flu in an Indonesian
village where authorities were investigating a possible cluster of human
cases of the H5N1 virus, a health official said Sunday.
Laboratory test results confirmed that Euis Lina, 35, had of the
disease, said Nyoman Kandun, the Health Ministry's director general of
communicable disease control. She died Thursday at a hospital in West
Java province's Garut district.
Her 9-year-old daughter died two weeks ago, but authorities were not
able to confirm whether she had bird flu, he said.
The H5N1 virus has killed at least 141 people worldwide since it began
ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. Indonesia has the highest
toll _ 46 _ and has come under criticism for not trying aggressively
enough to stop the disease from spreading.
Most people have been infected after coming into contact with sick
birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads
easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic.
Clusters of cases heighten the chance of that happening, so health
workers are keeping a close eye on Cikelet, a hamlet 90 miles southeast
of Jakarta, where there have been a dozen confirmed or suspected cases
of bird flu.
Among them were a 4-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and a 60-year-old
man who were rushed to a hospital Saturday and Sunday after coming down
with symptoms, hospital spokesman Yogi Suprayogi said.
Indonesian officials said they believed no human-to-human transmission
had yet occurred in the province. The government said it was
slaughtering poultry in the area and distributing free anti-viral drugs
to high-risk villages.
"Our team of health officials is collecting all data and information we
can from the area," said Kandun, adding that while the Cikelet cases
were "extraordinary ... the disease appears to have been spread by sick
poultry."
The latest outbreak has heightened concerns that Indonesia is a weak
link in global efforts to prevent a pandemic. The government has been
criticized for not carrying out widespread slaughters of poultry,
something it says it cannot afford to do.
In June, the government complained international donors had yet to
contribute toward the $900 million the government has budgeted to fight
H5N1 over the next three years.
Bird flu in Indonesia grabbed the world's attention in May when seven
members of a single family died of the virus _ the largest recorded
cluster to date. The WHO concluded that limited human-to-human
transmission likely occurred, but the virus did not spread beyond the
blood family members.
There were two groups of blood relatives among the 12 Cikelet cases,
each with just two members.