Indonesia Human Cases Feb 8 to March 14, 2006

[Clytie]

Four More Birdflu Cases Confirmed in Indonesia

Feb 6, 2006 (CIDRAP News)
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/con...0606avflu.html

? As the number of human cases of avian influenza in Indonesia continues to climb, the country is ramping up efforts to stem its spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed four more H5N1 infections, including two fatalities.

Of the two fatal cases, one was in a 22-year-old West Java man who died Jan 26, WHO reported. He sold bananas at a market in East Jakarta that also features poultry vendors. The other was in a 15-year-old boy, also from West Java, who died Feb 1, about a week after poultry deaths were reported in his neighborhood.

One nonfatal case was that of a 9-year-old girl from West Java who was hospitalized on Jan 19 and has fully recovered, WHO said. The other confirmed illness was in a 5-year-old boy from Lampung province who fell sick in October 2005. He is the brother of a 20-year-old man who had a confirmed case and also recovered fully.

The boy and his brother were both exposed to sick poultry in the course of slaughtering birds. The boy's initial tests were inconclusive, WHO said, but the infection was confirmed retrospectively from antibody levels in blood samples taken while he was sick and during his recovery.

The confirmatory testing brought WHO's case count for Indonesia to 23, including 16 deaths. Yet even before the organization updated its records, Indonesia was reporting another death. The country announced its 17th fatality (and 24th case) after a 38-year-old woman died in West Java on Feb 4, according to a story today from United Press International (UPI). Local tests found the woman had H5N1 infection, but samples were being sent to the WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation.

Concerned by the continuing human cases, the Indonesian government is planning door-to-door poultry surveillance efforts, the agriculture minister said today, according to The Jakarta Post.
The goal of the inspections is to prevent the spread of the H5N1 virus, said the minister, Anton Apriantono. Door-to-door visits are already being conducted for poultry in Sumedang and Purwakarta districts in West Java, and other regions could receive the same treatment soon, he said.

"We are trying to be proactive," Apriantono said.
Elsewhere it appears that the virus may be continuing its march among people and poultry.

In Iraq, a second fatal human case of H5N1 infection has been confirmed, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) story published today. The second case involves Hamma Sur Abdullah, 40, who is the uncle of the first case-patient, a 15-year-old girl who died in January. A Cairo laboratory confirmed his death was the result of H5N1 infection, a senior Kurdish health official told AFP. Additional testing is being conducted at a lab in Britain on samples from the uncle, as well as on samples from a woman from the same region who is currently hospitalized in Iraq.

Seven patients with suspected H5N1 cases were being treated in Iraq, AFP reported, as international experts began an on-the-ground assessment in the Kurdish north. Other news agencies put the figure as high as a dozen suspected cases. Samples from the suspected cases are being tested in Cairo.

Since the first Iraqi died of H5N1 in January, more than 900,000 chickens and migratory birds have been culled, according to the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) of the United Nations. Farmers in the Sulaimaniyah area are seeking compensation for their losses, IRIN reported today. More than 200 farmers protested peacefully on Feb 4.

Poultry infected with an H5 virus have been found in Bulgaria, a discovery that prompted officials there to block people's access to a wetlands area, according to Reuters news service.
A Reuters story published today said samples from a paralyzed, infected swan were being sent to Britain for further testing. H5 has been confirmed in the swan, but authorities await more tests to determine if it is H5N1.

"Scores of birds" died in the wetlands area, and about 30 ducks died at a farm near Varna on Sunday, the Reuters report said. Samples from the ducks were being sent to a lab in Sophia, the head of the veterinary office in Varna told Reuters.

"We're getting ready for a possible outbreak," Alexander Alexandrov, head of the regional veterinary office in Dobrich, told UPI. "People should forget about taking farm animals to water at the two lakes until spring, when the last [migratory] duck is gone."
See also
Feb 6 WHO update on Indonesia
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2006_02_06/en/index.html

[Cautel]

Re: Four More Birdflu Cases Confirmed in Indonesia

Local tests show two Indonesian women have bird flu

09 Feb 2006 03:34:06 GMT
Source: Reuters

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP80978.htm

JAKARTA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Two Indonesian women from an area just east of the capital are in hospital after local tests showed they had the H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior Health Ministry official said on Thursday.

Hariadi Wibisono, director of control of animal-borne diseases at the ministry, said the two women -- one aged 27 and the other 22 -- were being treated at a Jakarta hospital designated for bird flu patients.


"We received the results last night. Their health condition now is worsening," Wibisono said.

Further blood samples had been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory recognised by the World Health Organisation for confirmation.
Indonesia has had 16 WHO-confirmed deaths from bird flu and seven confirmed cases where patients have survived.

The two women are not related, but hail from the same suburban Jakarta area of Bekasi.

Sulianti Saroso hospital spokesman Ilham Patu said it was not clear how they may have picked up the virus. At least one had no direct contact with chickens, he said.

Most Indonesian cases have shown the victims had contact with dead chickens.

Turkey, Iraq and Nigeria have in recent weeks become the latest countries outside Asia to report human cases of the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

While it mostly affects birds, the virus has killed at least 88 people in seven countries since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus will mutate to become easily passed between humans, triggering a pandemic. The current H5N1 strain of bird flu has not mutated.

The highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has affected birds in two-thirds of the provinces in Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands and 220 million people.

The country has millions of chickens and ducks, many in the yards of rural or urban homes, making it likely that more humans will become infected with the virus.

AlertNet news is provided by Reuters

[DB]

Local tests show two Indonesian women have bird flu

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsAr...-INDONESIA.xml

Local tests show two Indonesian women have bird flu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Two Indonesian women from an area just east of the capital are in hospital after local tests showed they had the H5N1 bird flu virus, a senior Health Ministry official said on Thursday.
Hariadi Wibisono, director of control of animal-borne diseases at the ministry, said the two women -- one aged 27 and the other 22 -- were being treated at a Jakarta hospital designated for bird flu patients.
"We received the results last night. Their health condition now is worsening," Wibisono said.
Further blood samples had been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory recognized by the World Health Organization for confirmation.
Indonesia has had 16 WHO-confirmed deaths from bird flu and seven confirmed cases where patients have survived.
The two women are not related, but hail from the same suburban Jakarta area of Bekasi.
Sulianti Saroso hospital spokesman Ilham Patu said it was not clear how they may have picked up the virus. At least one had no direct contact with chickens, he said.
Most Indonesian cases have shown the victims had contact with dead chickens.
Turkey, Iraq and Nigeria have in recent weeks become the latest countries outside Asia to report human cases of the H5N1 strain of avian flu.
While it mostly affects birds, the virus has killed at least 88 people in seven countries since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus will mutate to become easily passed between humans, triggering a pandemic. The current H5N1 strain of bird flu has not mutated.
The highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has affected birds in two-thirds of the provinces in Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands and 220 million people.
The country has millions of chickens and ducks, many in the yards of rural or urban homes, making it likely that more humans will become infected with the virus.

[sharon sanders]

Indonesia

Friday, 10 February 2006 09:22
BNN: British Nursing News Online ? www.bnn-online.co.uk
INDONESIAN WOMAN KILLED BY BIRD FLU
Health officials have reported that one Indonesian woman has died and another is seriously ill after local tests showed they both had the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.

The women are not related, but are from the same suburb of the capital Jakarta.

The woman, who died, a 23-year-old from Bekasi, had been in hospital for several days. Officials said the condition of the other woman, 27, was deteriorating.

If the World Health Organization-approved laboratories confirm the tests, this would bring the total number of Indonesian bird flu deaths to 17.

[Theresa42]

Another Indonesian dies of bird flu

Another Indonesian dies of bird flu
11 February 2006 1123 hrs

JAKARTA : A 27-year-old Indonesian woman who tested positive for bird flu has died, hospital staff Saturday.

The woman died late Friday after being on a ventilator since Tuesday, said Ilham Patu, the spokesman of Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital where the patient had been treated.

Tests conducted by the health ministry, which are normally accurate, showed that the woman had bird flu.

On Thursday a 22-year-old woman died after local tests showed she had the virus.

Samples from the two women have been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for confirmation.

If confirmed, they would be Indonesia's 17th and 18th fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

The WHO has confirmed 23 human cases of bird flu in Indonesia, which have resulted in 16 confirmed deaths.

The virus has killed more than 85 people mostly in Asia since 2003 although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.

Experts fear that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted by humans and spark a global pandemic potentially killing millions. - AFP/ch

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...192665/1/.html

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Another Indonesian dies of bird flu

Indonesian woman dies of bird flu

February 12, 2006



A West Javan woman has died of bird flu, the second in the same town in as many days, officials say.
Dewi Sartika, 37, of Bekasi, a town just east of Jakarta, died overnight Friday at Sulianti Saroso Hospital, Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono said.
A 23-year-old woman, also from Bekasi, died of bird flu at the same hospital on Thursday night, Wibisono said citing local tests.
He said blood and swab samples from the two women had been sent to a World Health Organisation-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong.
If those tests are positive, Indonesia's official death toll from the virus would climb to 18.
Wibisono said another man was suspected of dying of bird flu on Friday night but officials were waiting for local test results.
Bird flu has killed at least 88 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003, according to the WHO.
It has been ravaging poultry stocks across Asia since 2003, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 140 million birds.
Almost all the deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
Indonesia is seen as a potential flashpoint because of its high density of people and of poultry.
Wibisono said the source of infection for the two victims from Bekasi was still being investigated, but initial inquiries showed both women had contact with poultry.
The WHO has confirmed 23 cases in Indonesia, 16 of which were fatal.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesian-woman-dies-of-bird-flu/2006/02/11/1139542445070.html

[Mellie]

WHO tests confirm two more Indonesian bird flu deaths

WHO tests confirm two more Indonesian bird flu deaths

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/192801/1/.html

JAKARTA : Results of tests by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that two Indonesian women who died in hospital last week had died of bird flu, a hospital spokesman said Sunday.

A 27-year-old who died at the Julianti Saroso hospital on Friday and a 22-year-old who died a day earlier both tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, Julianti Saroso Spokesman Ilham Patu told AFP.

The confirmation takes Indonesia's death toll from the virus to 18.

The virus has killed more than 85 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003 although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.

Experts fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted by humans and spark a global pandemic killing millions. - AFP/ch

[Goju]

WHO confirms 2 Indonesian women have bird flu

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4168594.htm


JAKARTA, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Health Organization (WHO)has confirmed two Indonesian woman of having avian influenza, bringing total cases in the country to 25, and 18 of them have died, a hospital official said here Sunday.

Ilham Patu, a director at the Jakarta designed hospital for bird flu, Sulianti Suroso Hospital, told Xinhua over telephone that the two women in their 20s died on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10 respectively after being treated in the hospital.

"The result of the test from WHO laboratory in Hong Kong show that they were confirmed, the result were obtained last night," hesaid.

But it was not clear whether the two women had contacts with birds, he said.

The director added that the local test of another man of 23 years old died on Feb. 10 in Sulianti Suroso Hospital was positive and his blood sample would be sent to Hong Kong laboratory on Monday.

More than 80 people have been killed by the virus in Asia, and Indonesia is the second biggest after Vietnam in terms of the number of victims, said the WHO.

The virus reportedly has spread to Nigeria, Turkey and Iraq in recent weeks.

A huge population and territory have hampered efforts to eliminate the virus in Indonesia, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriantono has said.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has 220 million people and 17,000 islands. Enditem



So now what is the fatality rate for Indonesia?? like 72%?

[Clytie]

2 more deaths in Indonesia

WHO tests confirm two more Indonesian bird flu deaths WHO tests confirm two more Indonesian bird flu deaths

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...192801/1/.html

JAKARTA : Results of tests by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that two Indonesian women who died in hospital last week had died of bird flu, a hospital spokesman said Sunday.

A 27-year-old who died at the Julianti Saroso hospital on Friday and a 22-year-old who died a day earlier both tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, Julianti Saroso Spokesman Ilham Patu told AFP.

The confirmation takes Indonesia's death toll from the virus to 18.

The virus has killed more than 85 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003 although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.

Experts fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted by humans and spark a global pandemic killing millions. - AFP/ch

[Sally Furniss]

Indonesia has most bird flu victims: WHO

Indonesia has most bird flu victims: WHO

February 14, 2006 - 6:49AM


Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has reported 18 human deaths from avian flu that have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Seven of the confirmed Indonesian fatalities have been in 2006, making Indonesia the country with the most bird flu deaths so far this year.

China's Ministry of Health said last Friday a woman had died of bird flu in the central province of Hunan, the eighth person killed by the virus in the country.

The total number of deaths from the H5N1 bird flu virus stands at 91 since it re-emerged in late 2003.
Meanwhile in Africa, the deadly H5N1 bird flu has been spreading in Nigeria and authorities trying to prevent any human infections said it was proving difficult to persuade people not to eat dead poultry as they were too poor to throw it away.

In the European Union, where H5N1 was confirmed in wildbirds for the first time at the weekend, Greece was testing one man for possible bird flu and other countries reported a sharp fall in poultry sales as a result of the arrival of the virus.
At present, humans can only contract the virus through close contact with an infected animal. The Greek man undergoing tests is a hunter who killed three wild ducks a week ago.

Most Nigerians are unaware of bird flu and many have been handling sick and dead birds, heightening the risk of infection.
But officials are finding it difficult to persuade them to change their habits.

"I have been in the field and they say 'What are you telling us? We eat dead chickens and we have been doing that for centuries'," said Abdulsalam Nasidi, who is in charge of efforts to prevent bird flu from spreading to humans in Nigeria.
There have been no human cases of bird flu so far inNigeria but as well as the four confirmed cases of H5N1 in birds in three Nigerian states, authorities said there were now suspected outbreaks of bird flu in five other states, some of them hundreds of kilometres from where the original cases were detected.

Experts fear H5N1 may mutate into a form that can spread between people and cause a pandemic that could kill millions, and health officials are implementing measures such as bird culling and testing to try to stop the spread of the virus.
Government workers searched rural areas of Hong Kong,bringing tears of despair to bird owners as they enforced a ban on backyard fowl to try to stop bird flu taking hold in one of the world's most densely populated cities.

"Whoever says we cannot rear chickens should be ****ed,"sobbed Lau Sau-foong, who said she fainted twice from despair.

"I have treated those geese and chickens like my ownchildren. After I wake up each morning I will feed them. Tell me, aren't they torturing me mentally?"

The arrival of bird flu in the European Union promptedgovernments across the region to bolster their defences against the virus, while farmers braced for a plunge in poultry consumption.

Greek industry officials said sales had plunged 95 per cent since Saturday and an Italian farmers' group reported a drop of more than 50 per cent.

The poultry and egg industry in the EU isestimated to be worth 20 billion euros ($A32 billion).
German authorities said they might bring forward a ban on keeping poultry outside, Spain was reviewing its controls and Bulgaria cordoned off wetlands where infected birds had been found.

The Greek Health Ministry said one man was in quarantine pending results of tests for possible bird flu.
A 15-year-old boy had also been tested after developing flu-like symptoms, but the results were negative.
Russia and Bulgaria, which have already had confirmedoutbreaks, reported new cases of bird flu, while Romania said it had found more suspected cases.

? 2006 AAP

http://smh.com.au/news/WORLD/Indones...679557808.html

[Cazandra]

Re: Indonesia has most bird flu victims: WHO

Two more bird flu cases confirmed in Indonesia

Web posted at: 2/13/2006 2:1:38
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Res t+of+the+World&month=February2006&file=World_News2 00602132138.xml
Source ::: Agencies


Penninsula - Quatar

JAKARTA: A Hong Kong laboratory recognised by the World Health Organisation has confirmed two more human bird flu deaths in Indonesia, raising the toll from the virus in the country to 18, a Health Ministry official said yesterday.


Hariadi Wibisono, director of control of animal-borne diseases at the ministry, also said local tests showed a 23-year-old man who died on Friday had the H5N1 bird flu virus.


“The man worked in a traditional market transporting chicken eggs that might have had droppings on them. His samples have been sent to Hong Kong for confirmation,” he said.


The WHO has urged that hygiene and sanitation standards in Indonesian traditional markets be improved.


The confirmation from the Hong Kong laboratory of the two deaths came after local tests found the two women as having the H5N1 bird flu virus. “I got the news in the middle of the night. With these two additions, the death toll is now at 18,” he said.

Although the two latest confirmed cases are not related, they both came from the suburb area of Bekasi, just east of the Indonesian capital.

Meanwhile, Nigerian health officials waited anxiously yesterday for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

The virus broke out in early January among poultry in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, but the H5N1 diagnosis was confirmed only last week and authorities are struggling to contain it as it spreads rapidly to farms across the north.


Health Ministry officials visited the families of two children who live near an infected farm in the northern state of Kaduna on Sunday and said the children may be moved to hospital.


“We are suspecting this might be something, but we are trying to get the real case notes,” said Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi, after visiting the family.

Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more than 20 farms have been hit in Kano state alone.


Farmers in three other states have also reported mass deaths of poultry, local media reported.


Farmers have received little information on how to handle the disease, and workers have been using their bare hands to dispose of thousands of infected birds, raising fears of a large number of human infections.

[Theresa42]

Indonesia to boost hospitals' bird flu treating capacity

Indonesia to boost hospitals' bird flu treating capacity
February 14, 2006

Indonesian health ministry plans to boost the capacity of 44 reference hospitals for bird flu patients in an effort to optimize the fight against the disease, an official said on Monday.

"The government is now still mapping the conditions of the hospitals concerned," I Nyoman Kandun, the ministry's director general of disease control and environment sanitation, said.

"We want to know if the hospitals already have an isolation ward, complete equipment and skilled personnel," Antara news agency quoted the director as saying.

He said the plan was part of efforts to minimize the disease's fatality rate. "With good management of cases and availability of equipment and drugs to deal with the disease, it is hoped the fatality rate will drop," he said.

He said the rate of fatality in bird flu cases in Indonesia had reached around 70 percent or was higher than in other countries such as Vietnam, where the rate was recorded at only 23 percent, Thailand (63 pct) and Turkey (28 pct).

The health ministry had recorded a total of 26 positive cases of bird flu from July to Feb. 12 this year in 16 provinces in the country and the cases had led to 18 deaths.

Meanwhile, out of 91 patients treated on suspicion of carrying H5N1 strain of bird flu virus 28 had died, he said.

Among the factors that had caused the high rate of fatality was because most bird flu patients were taken to hospital only after it was too late.

He said Tamiflu was only effective medicine for bird flu patients 24 hours after infection.

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/...14_242537.html

[Mellie]

Two More Humans Die Of Bird Flu Infection In Indonesia

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=37766

Two More Humans Die Of Bird Flu Infection In Indonesia

Main Category: Flu/Bird Flu/SARS News
Article Date: 14 Feb 2006 - 22:00pm (UK)

The Indonesian Ministry of Health confirmed that a 22 year-old woman and a 27 year-old woman died of H5N1 bird flu (avian flu) infection.

The younger woman became ill on 25th January and died on the 10th February. She lived next door to a family that kept chickens in their backyard. Authorities have taken samples of these chickens, as well as pet birds in a market nearby.

The other woman started showing symptoms on 31st January and died on the 10th February. A few days before she became ill there had been reports of dead chickens in her neighbourhood.

Both women were from West Java Province.

So far 25 humans have been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus strain in Indonesia, of which 18 have died.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

[Mellie]

Two More Humans Die Of Bird Flu Infection In Indonesia

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/heal...p?newsid=37766

Two More Humans Die Of Bird Flu Infection In Indonesia

Main Category: Flu/Bird Flu/SARS News
Article Date: 14 Feb 2006 - 22:00pm (UK)

The Indonesian Ministry of Health confirmed that a 22 year-old woman and a 27 year-old woman died of H5N1 bird flu (avian flu) infection.

The younger woman became ill on 25th January and died on the 10th February. She lived next door to a family that kept chickens in their backyard. Authorities have taken samples of these chickens, as well as pet birds in a market nearby.

The other woman started showing symptoms on 31st January and died on the 10th February. A few days before she became ill there had been reports of dead chickens in her neighbourhood.

Both women were from West Java Province.

So far 25 humans have been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus strain in Indonesia, of which 18 have died.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

[Mellie]

Agriculture Minister Says Indonesia Aims to Control Bird Flu in Three Years

Agriculture Minister Says Indonesia Aims to Control Bird Flu in Three Years

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/390979/agriculture_minister_says_indonesia_aims_to_control_bird_flu_in/index.html?source=r_health

Tuesday, 14 February 2006

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Jakarta, 14 February: Indonesia targeted to control the bird flu virus spread, that has killed 18 out of 26 infected people, in three years, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said here Tuesday [14 February].

"The target of reducing the virus to a condition that we can control it is three years, in 2008," Anton told Xinhua at the state palace.

The minister said the only step which now could be taken is slowly reducing the development of the H5N1 virus, because wild and migratory birds are still difficult to prevent from spreading the avian influenza virus.

He said although an infected area had been cleaned from the virus through depopulation and vaccination, there was no guarantee that the area was free from the virus forever, because wild birds may come again and infect it.

Indonesia on Tuesday insisted on intensifying depopulation of birds in infected areas within a radius of 1 km and conducting vaccination within a radius of 3 km.

"There is a possibility (of the virus to re-remerge) in infected areas, that was caused by not only migratory birds but also pigeons, therefore a massive stamping-out is not effective, because pigeons can return," he said.

"By selective stamping-out in an area with vaccination being followed in its surrounding areas, it can only reduce the virus. So, do not expect in one step all (the virus) can be eliminated," said Anton.

The minister of people's welfare and poverty alleviation, Aburizal Bakrie, said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had instructed them to increase import of Tamiflu tablets and seek possibility to produce more tablet in the country in the next three months.

The minister said that currently the government is importing 200,000 boxes or about 2m tablets of Tamiflu from Switzerland and that the other 20,000 boxes will be imported in June.

President Susilo will beef up efforts to control the spread of the virus through coordination with five provincial governors whose areas were the most seriously infected by the virus.

The areas are the provinces of Lampung, the most seriously hit, Banten, West Java, Jakarta and Central Java, according to the agriculture minister.

Indonesia has made fighting bird flu one of the government's top priorities.

The World Health Organization has said that the virus is out of control in the world now, as it has spread to Russia, Europe, Turkey and Africa.

More than 80 people have been killed by the H5N1 virus in Asia.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific