Lab tests show Indonesian woman died of bird flu

[hawkeye]

Lab tests show Indonesian woman died of bird flu
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-07 19:15

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- An Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, taking the national toll from the avian virus to 75, a Health Ministry spokesman said Monday.

The woman, 29, died Thursday on the island of Sumatra, said Nyoman Kandun, citing two rounds of laboratory testing. No details were available about how she may have contracted the disease.

Indonesia has reported 75 bird flu fatalities since it first broke in Asia out two years ago - more than a third of the world's total.

In January, it stopped supplying virus samples to the World Health Organization, citing concerns they could be used to develop a commercial vaccine unaffordable to people in developing countries.

A broad agreement was worked out in March, but Indonesia has refused to resumed shipments after recent talks in Geneva failed to iron out the details.

 

[FluBossie]

Re: Lab tests show Indonesian woman died of bird flu

Indonesian woman dies of bird flu -health ministry

Mon May 7, 2007 10:10AM BST

JAKARTA, May 7 (Reuters) - An Indonesian woman from Sumatra has died from bird flu, a health ministry official said on Monday, taking the country's human death toll to 75.

Joko Suyono said by telephone the H5N1 virus had been confirmed after two laboratory tests on samples from the victim.

The woman, 29, who was from Pekanbaru in Riau province on Sumatra island, was hospitalised in Medan on May 1 after suffering from fever and respiratory problems and died two days later, another health ministry official, Suharda Ningrum, said.

"There were no fowl in her neighbourhood in Pekanbaru, however officials are conducting a thorough investigation," she said.

Most humans who contract bird have had contact with infected fowl.

The virus is endemic among fowl in many parts of Indonesia, where millions of people keep a few chickens or other domesticated birds in their yards.

Although avian flu still mainly affects birds, experts fear if it mutates into a form easily transmitted from person to person, it could sweep the world, killing millions.

Indonesia has by far the highest human death toll from the disease.


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