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WHO completes bird flu study in Karo
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The World Health Organization (WHO) has completed a one-month bird flu investigation in Karo regency, North Sumatra but declined to reveal any results as suspected bird flu cases have continued to emerge.
Senior health official I Nyoman Kandun said Friday that a local test showed that a 14-year-old boy who was admitted to a South Jakarta hospital Wednesday and died on the same day, had died of bird flu.
Samples from the boy have been sent to a WHO-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, he told AFP, adding that people who had had contact with the victim were being monitored for signs of infection.
A Tempo magazine journalist in Tasikmalaya, West Java with bird flu symptoms has also been hospitalized. According to tempointeraktif.com, the journalist was referred to Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung for treatment Wednesday.
The suspect reportedly experienced a high fever Sunday, several days after a cull in the area around the house of a person who had died of bird flu in Tasikmalaya. According to chief of the hospital's isolation room, Adang Rasmita, the suspect has shown improvement but is being monitored closely.
The WHO has confirmed 38 deaths from bird flu in the country, making it the country with the second highest number of victims after Vietnam, which has reported 42 deaths -- none of which occurred this year -- and the highest number this year. More than 120 people have died of bird flu around the world since late 2003, the vast majority of them in Asia.
WHO Press Officer, Sari P. Setiogi, said by phone Friday the organization had stopped its investigation in Karo last week but the decision was not made due to Karo residents' objection to their presence.
"The threats from the Karo residents have nothing to do with the WHO team's investigation. The investigation was completed last week so the team had to leave Karo," she said.
She said during the investigation by the six-member team in Kubu Simbelang village, they had not been intimidated or received any threats.
When asked about the results, Sari declined to comment, saying the WHO has submitted the result to the Health Ministry which is authorized to issue such a statement.
Dozens of residents grouped under the Karo People's Coalition staged a protest Wednesday at the North Sumatra governor's office, demanding that the governor ask the WHO team to leave the area within three days. They were threatening to personally tell the team to leave Karo if the government took no action by Friday.
This was not the first time the village made media headlines since seven people from one family there were confirmed to have contracted the virus. The first person in the family to die, a woman in her late 30s, is also believed to have had bird flu although she was buried before tests could be carried out.
Scientists fear that the family's case may represent what is known as tertiary transmission, where someone may have been infected by a chicken and infected a relative, who infected others within the group.
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The World Health Organization (WHO) has completed a one-month bird flu investigation in Karo regency, North Sumatra but declined to reveal any results as suspected bird flu cases have continued to emerge.
Senior health official I Nyoman Kandun said Friday that a local test showed that a 14-year-old boy who was admitted to a South Jakarta hospital Wednesday and died on the same day, had died of bird flu.
Samples from the boy have been sent to a WHO-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, he told AFP, adding that people who had had contact with the victim were being monitored for signs of infection.
A Tempo magazine journalist in Tasikmalaya, West Java with bird flu symptoms has also been hospitalized. According to tempointeraktif.com, the journalist was referred to Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung for treatment Wednesday.
The suspect reportedly experienced a high fever Sunday, several days after a cull in the area around the house of a person who had died of bird flu in Tasikmalaya. According to chief of the hospital's isolation room, Adang Rasmita, the suspect has shown improvement but is being monitored closely.
The WHO has confirmed 38 deaths from bird flu in the country, making it the country with the second highest number of victims after Vietnam, which has reported 42 deaths -- none of which occurred this year -- and the highest number this year. More than 120 people have died of bird flu around the world since late 2003, the vast majority of them in Asia.
WHO Press Officer, Sari P. Setiogi, said by phone Friday the organization had stopped its investigation in Karo last week but the decision was not made due to Karo residents' objection to their presence.
"The threats from the Karo residents have nothing to do with the WHO team's investigation. The investigation was completed last week so the team had to leave Karo," she said.
She said during the investigation by the six-member team in Kubu Simbelang village, they had not been intimidated or received any threats.
When asked about the results, Sari declined to comment, saying the WHO has submitted the result to the Health Ministry which is authorized to issue such a statement.
Dozens of residents grouped under the Karo People's Coalition staged a protest Wednesday at the North Sumatra governor's office, demanding that the governor ask the WHO team to leave the area within three days. They were threatening to personally tell the team to leave Karo if the government took no action by Friday.
This was not the first time the village made media headlines since seven people from one family there were confirmed to have contracted the virus. The first person in the family to die, a woman in her late 30s, is also believed to have had bird flu although she was buried before tests could be carried out.
Scientists fear that the family's case may represent what is known as tertiary transmission, where someone may have been infected by a chicken and infected a relative, who infected others within the group.