Indonesia Confirms 115th Human Bird Flu Infection

A 47-year-old Indonesian man has been confirmed as the 115th bird flu case in the nation worst hit by the virus, the health ministry said Wednesday.

The man is being treated in a Jakarta hospital for the disease, which has claimed 92 lives in Indonesia.

Two laboratory tests on the man showed that he was infected with the highly pathogenic virus, a statement from the ministry's bird flu centre said.

Two positive results of tests on blood and tissue samples are needed before Indonesian authorities can confirm a human bird flu infection.

The man, who is from the Jakarta satellite city of Tangerang, was first admitted to a private hospital there on December 5, three days after he began to feel ill. He was referred to the Jakarta hospital on December 10.

Four bird flu deaths have been reported in Tangerang since October, including Indonesia's latest death on Monday.

"His condition is stable, although he remains assisted by a respiratory aid and continues to be treated in isolation at the intensive care ward," Muchtar Ihsan, the doctor heading the bird flu team at the hospital treating the patient, told AFP.

A team from Indonesia's animal husbandry office was testing ducks that the man raised at home to see whether they were infected, said a doctor on duty at the bird flu centre, who gave his name as Joko.

The virus is usually transmitted to humans from infected birds but scientists fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Joko added that the patient had also just returned from a trip to an area about an hour from Tangerang which was also being checked for infected poultry.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed nearly 210 people worldwide since late 2003, though the number of human infections and deaths declined this year over last year.

According to the official World Health Organisation toll, which does not include Monday's death, 49 people have died of the infection in 2007, down from 71 in 2006.

Twenty-six countries reported flu outbreaks in birds in 2007, of which four experienced them for the first time.

Source-AFP
LIN/P