Dozens of people quarantined in Indonesian village struck by bird flu

[Susie]

Dozens of people quarantined in Indonesian village struck by bird flu


Last Updated 25/05/2006, 16:11:23 Select text size:

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1647536.htm?Indonesia

Health experts in an Indonesian village hit by an unprecedented bird flu outbreak have asked more than 30 people to quarantine themselves to contain any potential further spread.

World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Dick Thompson says people who had close contact with any of seven relatives who have died since last month in the North Sumatran village are being monitored for signs of illness.

Mr Thompson also says that contact with an infected bird is now considered the likely cause of the outbreak.

His comments come a day after another WHO spokesman, Peter Cordingly, said the UN body was "stumped" about the original source of the infection.

Mr Thompson has stressed there is evidence the virus has not mutated into a form that can be more easily spread from humans to humans.

He says samples of the virus taken from the cluster of victims have been sequenced in a Hong Kong laboratory and have not shown any signs of mutation into a more contagious form.

Since late 2003, outbreaks of bird flu have killed 124 people in nine countries worldwide, 33 of them in Indonesia.


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And another post, here, which I couldn't copy for some reason. It mentions 4-5 clusters

http://news.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=13321

 

[Bruce]

Re: Dozens of people quarantined in Indonesian village struck by bird flu

Susie's link

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Dozens quarantined in Indonesian bird flu village

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Health experts in an Indonesian village hit by an unprecedented bird flu outbreak have asked more than 30 people to quarantine themselves to contain any potential further spread, officials said Thursday.

People who had close contact with any of seven relatives who have died since last month in the North Sumatran village are being monitored for signs of illness, World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Dick Thompson told AFP.

"The focus right now is contact tracing, identifying those people who may
have been in contact with this cluster," Thompson told AFP by telephone.

"We will monitor their health and encourage them to self-quarantine
themselves."

A day after another WHO spokesman, Peter Cordingley, said the UN body was
"stumped" about the original source of the infection, Thompson said that
contact with an infected bird was now considered the likely cause.

Cordingley also on Wednesday described the outbreak as "the mother of all
clusters", but Thompson stressed there was evidence that the virus had not mutated into a form that could be more easily spread from humans to humans.

"From what we see, it takes very close and maybe prolonged contact with a
sick individual," for someone to catch the virus, Thompson said.

Thompson said while Indonesia's cluster was the biggest so far, there had
been "maybe four to five" close-contact infections since the outbreak of bird flu in late 2003 that has gone on to kill 124 people in nine countries worldwide, 33 of them in Indonesia.

He said samples of the virus taken from the cluster of victims had been
sequenced in a Hong Kong laboratory and had not shown any signs of mutation into a more contagious form.

The WHO has sent a 10-member team to Kubu Sembelang village, Karo District, to identify those who had close contact with the family. So far more than 30, including more relatives, have been traced and asked to quarantine themselves.

"We will monitor them for a week or two to see if they become sick. If they do they will immediately be put in isolation in a hospital," Thompson said.

The group under watch might be given Tamiflu, an anti-flu drug that has
shown some effectiveness in reducing the mortality rate of avian flu when
administered in the early stages of the sickness, he added.

Bird flu tests would be carried out on anyone who showed signs of
sickness.

Six people in the family have been confirmed to have been infected with
H5N1, while the WHO has concluded the first person in the family to die was also a bird flu victim although she was buried before tests could be carried out.

The cases have brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 33, with 22 of
those this year. (*)

May 25 12:50

http://news.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=13321

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