Fifth Indonesian dies of bird flu
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) - A fifth Indonesian has died of bird flu, hospital officials said, one week after the country declared it was facing an "extraordinary" outbreak of the virus.
The woman, 27, died Monday morning and was one of five patients who had tested positive for bird flu at the Sulianto Saroso hospital for infectious diseases, said Sardikin Giriputro, deputy head of the hospital.
He said tests done in Indonesia on her saliva and blood were positive for bird flu but that samples had been sent to Hong Kong for further testing.
"We did serology tests and the results showed positive for bird flu," Giriputro said, adding officials would extract the woman's lung tissues to determine final results.
He said the woman, from the eastern Jakarta suburb of Cakung, had been in contact with chickens which died from an unknown cause.
"According to her family, 15 chickens in her home died but we don't know whether the chickens had died because of bird flu or not. We haven't got any confirmation from the agriculture ministry," Giriputro said.
Giriputro also said an eight-year-old boy declared bird flu positive last week proved negative after follow-up tests.
He added that five out of 22 people who had been admitted to the hospital were allowed to go home because they had been found not to have the disease.
The latest death brought to 64 the number of people in Southeast Asia known to have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus since 2003. Vietnam has recorded 43 deaths, Thailand 12 and Cambodia four.
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