Bird flu outbreak hits Bali
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bird flu outbreak hits Bali*
From correspondents in Jakarta
August 13, 2007 02:18pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
HEALTH officials in Bali are investigating whether a woman and her
daughter died from the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza.
If confirmed, the death of the 29-year-old woman and the five-year-old
girl will become the first cases of the disease for the tourist island.
Doctors at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar were awaiting test results after
the death of Ni Luh Putu Sri Windani last Sunday, officials said.
Initial tests show she had the H5N1 strain.
Two tests are needed to conclusively establish the type of virus.
"She is suspected of bird flu infection and chickens which died in her
neighbourhood were positively infected," said Joko Suyono of the Bird
Flu Information Centre in Jakarta.
If confirmed, it would be the first human case of the H5N1 virus in
Bali, the centre of Indonesia's tourism industry.
Ms Windani's five-year-old daughter also died recently after playing
with chickens but it was unclear if the girl died of bird flu.
Ms Wendani, from a village in the district of Jembrana in western Bali,
was suffering from a high fever before dying of multiple organ failure,
said Ken Wirasandi, a doctor at Sanglah Hospital.
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 a bigger hospital in Denpasar on Friday, where
she was treated in the isolation unit, Mr Suyono said.
He said initial investigations indicated last month the daughter had
become sick after playing with chickens and died a week later.
"We were unable to retrieve any tissue samples, so we can't confirm
whether she died of bird flu," he said.
Kompas newspaper said the child died on August 3 after showing bird flu
symptoms.
A two-year-old neighbour of the woman had also been admitted to the same
hospital in Denpasar, the report said.
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