Bird Flu Deaths in Indonesia Raise Concerns
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By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: May 18, 2006
A cluster of avian flu deaths in an extended Indonesian family has raised the possibility that the virus has passed between people there, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
There have been several avian flu clusters in Indonesia, but this is the largest known one, and the different beginning dates of symptoms in the family are worrisome, officials said.
The flu is spreading rapidly in Indonesian flocks, and before this week, the country had 25 known human deaths, the second-highest number in the world, after Vietnam.
"We haven't seen any evidence of spread beyond this cluster," said Maria Cheng, a W.H.O. spokeswoman. "The investigation is still at an early stage."
Reports of limited transmission of the virus between humans worry health officials but do not necessarily alarm them. Unlike seasonal flu viruses, which attach in the nose or throat, making them easy to spread, the A(H5N1) virus is known to attach to receptors found deep in the lungs.
Reports from the village of Kubu Sembilang, on the island of Sumatra, repeated by news agencies and Web sites, were somewhat confusing. Five family members have been confirmed by a W.H.O.-certified laboratory in Hong Kong as having the A(H5N1) virus. Seven or eight members of the family were said to have shown symptoms, and six were reported to have died.
According to experts familiar with the case who were cited on the Web site recombinomics.com, which tracks genetic changes in infectious diseases, the first to die was a 37-year-old woman who fell ill on April 27, two days before a family barbecue, and died May 4. Two sons, a brother, a sister, a niece and a nephew developed symptoms after the barbecue and five more died from May 9 to last Sunday.
No tissue from the 37-year-old woman was tested, so it is possible that she died of something else and that other members of the family were also infected by something else.
Indonesia's health minister speculated that the family was infected by chicken manure bought from a farm that had a flu outbreak. Tests on poultry and pigs in the village have not found the virus.
Article Tools Sponsored By
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: May 18, 2006
A cluster of avian flu deaths in an extended Indonesian family has raised the possibility that the virus has passed between people there, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
There have been several avian flu clusters in Indonesia, but this is the largest known one, and the different beginning dates of symptoms in the family are worrisome, officials said.
The flu is spreading rapidly in Indonesian flocks, and before this week, the country had 25 known human deaths, the second-highest number in the world, after Vietnam.
"We haven't seen any evidence of spread beyond this cluster," said Maria Cheng, a W.H.O. spokeswoman. "The investigation is still at an early stage."
Reports of limited transmission of the virus between humans worry health officials but do not necessarily alarm them. Unlike seasonal flu viruses, which attach in the nose or throat, making them easy to spread, the A(H5N1) virus is known to attach to receptors found deep in the lungs.
Reports from the village of Kubu Sembilang, on the island of Sumatra, repeated by news agencies and Web sites, were somewhat confusing. Five family members have been confirmed by a W.H.O.-certified laboratory in Hong Kong as having the A(H5N1) virus. Seven or eight members of the family were said to have shown symptoms, and six were reported to have died.
According to experts familiar with the case who were cited on the Web site recombinomics.com, which tracks genetic changes in infectious diseases, the first to die was a 37-year-old woman who fell ill on April 27, two days before a family barbecue, and died May 4. Two sons, a brother, a sister, a niece and a nephew developed symptoms after the barbecue and five more died from May 9 to last Sunday.
No tissue from the 37-year-old woman was tested, so it is possible that she died of something else and that other members of the family were also infected by something else.
Indonesia's health minister speculated that the family was infected by chicken manure bought from a farm that had a flu outbreak. Tests on poultry and pigs in the village have not found the virus.