- Preliminary tests have found that avian
influenza has killed 2 more siblings in Indonesia, officials said on Fri
26 May 2006, as the country grapples with a separate outbreak involving
the largest family cluster ever reported.
-
- Local tests found that a brother and
sister from West Java who died earlier this week were infected by the
H5N1 virus, said Nyoman Kandun, head of the Health Ministry's office of
communicable disease control. The tests will be sent to a World Health
Organization laboratory for further confirmation. WHO officials so far
have confirmed 33 human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia, out of 124 worldwide.
-
- The latest victims, an 18-year-old boy
and his 10-year-old sister, died on Tue 23 May 2005 in the state-run Hasan
Sidikin hospital in Bandung, the capital city of West Java, said Achmad,
an official at the Ministry's special task force post for bird flu, who
uses only one name. They died within hours of each other less than a day
after arriving at the hospital, he said.
-
- The newest cases come as Indonesia is
struggling with a different family cluster in northern Sumatra where 6
of seven family members died of bird flu, the most recent on Mon 22 May
2006. An 8th family member who died was buried before tests could be done,
but she was also considered to be among those infected with bird flu.
-
- WHO officials have not been able to link
the family members to contact with infected birds, and have said it's
possible limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. Similar
isolated cases of transmission among humans is believed to have occurred
in 4 or 5 other family clusters, said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson. But
the Indonesia case is the largest ever reported. However, the WHO has
stressed the virus has not mutated in any way and has shown no signs of
spreading outside the family -- all blood relatives who had very close
contact with each other.
-
- A team of international health experts
and villagers is closely monitoring the area where the family lived in
northern Sumatra to ensure no one else experiences flu-like symptoms.
About 30 people in the village of Kubu Sembelang have been asked to stay
inside their homes and avoid close contact as a precautionary measure,
Thompson said. Experts also are exploring whether the first woman sickened
in the family may have had contact with sick or dead chickens. She also
worked at a market where chickens were sold and may have used chicken feces
as a garden fertilizer, WHO officials have said.
-
- http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp? fileid=20060526113237&irec=5
|
