Indonesian authorities have confirmed that a child who died last week was the country's 41st victim of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5179466.stm
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The A(H5N1) strains circulating now are quite different from the A(H5N1) strain detected in Hong Kong in 1997, which killed 6 of 18 human victims.
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Over time, A(H5N1) seems to have developed the ability to infect more and more species of birds, and has found its way into mammals -- specifically, cats that have eaten infected birds.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/avianinfluenza/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
July 15, 2006 1:10 p.m. EST
Nicole King - All Headline News Staff Writer
(AHN) - New research shows the H5N1 avian flu virus multiplies several times as it's passed down through generations of people. Scientists studied a case in which at least seven members of one Indonesian family became infected.
The research shows as the virus was passed through three generations of one family, it mutated. In one instance, 21 times. This is believed to be the first time H5N1 has spread through so many generations.
Only one member of the family survived. Since 2003, there have been 229 confirmed cases and 131 deaths.
Posted 7/15/2006 8:01 PM ET
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 44-year-old man died of bird flu in Indonesia, a senior health official said Sunday, putting the country on the cusp of being the world's hardest hit by the disease.
The man died July 12 after being hospitalized for two days with high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties, said the official, Nyoman Kandun.
"Local tests showed he was infected with the H5N1 virus," he said, adding that the man was from eastern outskirts of the capital Jakarta and had reportedly had contact with birds.
If confirmed by a World Health Organization-sanctioned test, the number of people killed by bird flu in Indonesia rise to at least 42, tying it with hardest-hit Vietnam.