Indonesian girl dies from bird flu
Pastor Dale Morgan
Indonesian girl dies from bird flu*
POSTED: 0722 GMT (1522 HKT), May 23, 2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- A 5-year-old Indonesian girl from
Central Java province has died of bird flu, a Health Ministry official
said on Wednesday.
The girl from Wonogiri, who had fallen ill on May 8, died last Thursday
after being treated in hospital in the town of Solo for fever and
respiratory problems, said Suharda Ningrum of the ministry's bird flu
center.
Authorities were still investigating the case, but at least 20 chickens
had died suddenly near her home, the official said.
Contact with sick fowl is the most common cause of human infection.
The girl's death brings the number of confirmed human fatalities in
Indonesia to 77, the highest in the world.
Millions of backyard fowl live in close proximity to humans, and keeping
backyard chickens is ingrained in Indonesian culture.
Authorities in some areas have made efforts to alter behavior, but
health-education campaigns have often been patchy and rules difficult to
enforce. Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that
spreads easily among people, triggering a pandemic that would sweep the
globe.