- There are 42 reported human cases of avian influenza
across Indonesia, but only 10 patients have tested positive, Minister of
Health Siti Fadillah Supari said here on Monday (26 Sep 2005).
-
- 6 of the 10 people infected with bird flu have died recently,
the minister said. Supari said bird flu cases have been reported from
at least 8 provinces in the country, with Jakarta having the highest case
number of 28.
-
- She made the remarks hours after the death of a 30-year-old
housewife during intensive hospital treatment for developing bird flu symptoms,
the 6 death [from] avian influenza ever reported in the country.
-
- http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-09/26/content_3547057.htm
-
-
- Latest H5N1 Death Brings Indonesia Toll To
Six
-
- By Tomi Soetjipto and Telly Nathalia
9-27-5
-
- JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters)
-- A 27-year-old Indonesian woman died in a Jakarta hospital on Monday
(26 Sep 2005) after suffering from avian influenza, and a 5-year-old girl
who died last week was suspected to have carried the disease, officials
said on Monday. The disease had already killed 4 people in the sprawling
country with the world's 4th [largest] population.
-
- Sardikin Giriputro, deputy head of the hospital designated
by the government to treat patients with suspected bird flu, said the woman
had been admitted on Thursday. "It's confirmed H5N1," I Nyoman
Kandun, who heads disease control at the health ministry, told a news conference,
describing the most deadly strain of bird flu.
-
- It was unclear how the woman got the disease, but she
had been in contact with chickens that died from an unknown cause. Many
urban-area households in Indonesia keep livestock, especially chickens,
in their yards. "According to her family, 15 chickens in her home
died, but we don't know whether the chickens had died because of bird flu
or not," Giriputro had said.
-
- Indonesia's health ministry now puts the death toll from
bird flu at 6, because a local test on a 5-year-old girl was positive.
By World Health Organization standards however, the final proof rests on
the outcome of a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, which in the girl's
case showed negative.
-
- Bird flu has killed 65 people in 4 Asian nations since
late 2003 and has been found in birds in [European Russia]. The virus has
spread to 22 provinces out of 33 in the Indonesian archipelago, killing
more than 9.5 million domesticated birds since 2003. Indonesia said this
week it would cull poultry in areas where the outbreak was serious.
-
- Giriputro said 5 out of 22 people who had been admitted
to the hospital were allowed to go home because they had been found not
to have the disease. Experts' greatest fear now is that the H5N1 virus,
which has the power to kill one out of every 2 people it infects, could
set off a pandemic if it gains the ability to be passed easily among people.
While they say the virus could have passed in a few cases from person to
person who had very close and sustained contact in the last 2 years, it
has yet to mutate into a form which would allow it to do that easily.
-
- Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said on Monday 20
000 doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu were expected to arrive in Indonesia
by Tuesday and a further 20 000 would come by the end of this week. Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Canberra will pay for a further
40 000 doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu for Indonesia, on top of an
initial 10 000 doses that Canberra said on Friday it would fund.
-
- (additional reporting by Michelle Nichols)
-
-
- ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
-
- The number of cases of avian influenza in Indonesia shows
signs of escalating, and the situation is causing concern in neighbouring
countries as well as throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The Indonesian
authorities have identified at least 42 human cases and 6 deaths from avian
influenza virus infection. Not all the cases have exhibited signs of disease,
and a number of suspected cases have given negative test results. Furthermore,
one of the 6 fatal cases has yielded discordant test results. There has
been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of infection so far,
and it is still presumed that the human cases have contracted infection
directly from birds or poultry products. It is difficult to evaluate the
true significance of the present situation, as the WHO table of laboratory-confirmed
cases of avian influenza in humans in East Asia (last updated on 22 Sep
2005) lists only 3 cases and 2 deaths in Indonesia. It is also not clear
how the Indonesian authorities intend to make use of the antiviral drugs
that they have solicited and been donated. - Mod.CP
-
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
-
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
-
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
|
