Posted on 01/28/2008 4:41:05 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Indonesia bird flu death toll hits 100 Mon Jan 28, 8:00 AM ET
A 23-year-old Indonesian woman from East Jakarta has died from bird flu, taking the country's death toll to 100, according to a report from Indonesia's bird flu information centre on Monday.
The woman died on Sunday and two separate laboratory tests confirmed she contracted H5N1, the report said.
Earlier on Monday, a 9-year-old Indonesian boy who had tested positive for bird flu died, the health ministry said in a statement.
The boy from the outskirts of Jakarta died at the Sulianto Saroso hospital on Sunday after being treated in different hospitals for two weeks, said Joko Suyono, an official at the ministry's bird flu information centre.
It was not known how the boy contracted the disease.
Indonesia has had the highest number of human deaths from bird flu of any country.
A 31-year-old woman and 32-year-old man hospitalized at Persahabatan hospital for fever and respiratory problems also tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus on Monday, the ministry said.
According to the statement, the woman lived in East Jakarta near a poultry slaughterhouse that kept many fowl believed to be the source of her H5N1 infection.
The man from Tangerang, west of Jakarta, is believed to have contracted H5N1 from his neighbor's pet doves, the ministry said.
Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia.
Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and kill millions.
Suyono said there are no obvious explanations for the sudden surge of cases. "We need to carry more tests and investigation first to be really sure."
(Reporting by Mita Valina Liem and Adhityani Arga; Editing by Sara Webb and Jerry Norton)
Ping!
((PING))
Probably we’ll have to watch the migrating birds again here in Alaska. Alaska is supposed to be an entry point to America for this Bird Flue. Last year of 20,000 birds, none had it.
....poultry living in tens of thousands of homes rather than at farms...
“Here you have to deal with poultry birds in backyards. In many places, the villagers consider the poultry as part of their family and do not want to part with them,” he said.
Many villagers have refused to give up their chickens, claiming government compensation was inadequate..Many villagers have refused to give up their chickens, claiming government compensation was inadequate. On Monday the state government said it was allotting extra funds.
Late Sunday, police arrested 12 farmers in Birbhum, one of the worst-affected areas, who attacked five officials after health workers slaughtered their chickens, Taapan Kumar Som, a local government official.
No human cases have been reported in India, despite two H5N1 outbreaks among birds. WHO said the current outbreak is the most dangerous India has faced.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/21/asia/AS-GEN-India-Bird-Flu.php
Another example of media paranoia..
Confucius say: Bird in hand makes hard to blow nose.
I’ll bet you an ice cold adult beverage that we have PI in CONUS before we have AI. Better chance of PI arriving on a 747 than AI flying in on a migratory bird.
thanks, bfl
micro ping
Ping.... (Thanks, neverdem!)
There, fixed it. Indonesia has no way of tracking the real number of cases of H5N1, but these are officially confirmed.
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