Bird flu death toll in RI climbs to seven
Bird flu death toll in RI climbs to seven
Agencies, Jakarta/Bandung
A Hong Kong laboratory has confirmed the deaths of two more people in Jakarta from bird flu, bringing the total to seven, health authorities say.
The admittance of at least two other people showing symptoms of the deadly virus was also reported here on Thursday.
Spokesman for Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital Ilham Patu said the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed late on Wednesday that two women who died in the last few weeks were infected with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
"We received confirmation from WHO last night that two more deaths have been confirmed as due to bird flu," Patu said. He said the two latest cases were of females aged 16 and 20 but gave no other details.
He earlier said however that samples from a teenager identified as Sarah, 16 -- who died at a private hospital in South Jakarta on Nov. 8 with symptoms of bird flu -- were being tested by WHO laboratories in Hong Kong.
A recent arrival in Jakarta, a woman from Purwokerto in Central Java, also died last Saturday after being hospitalized with suspected bird flu, he said, adding tests results on her would soon be made available.
Patu said a second woman, who was suffering bird flu symptoms and had been in close contact with poultry, was transferred to the hospital, the main center for treatment of the virus here, from another in North Jakarta.
Another patient, a 16-year-old boy, is being treated at Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung, West Java.
Hadi Yusuf, head of the hospital's division designated to treat bird flu cases, said on Thursday the boy, identified only by his initials as ET from Cikahuripan in the West Java town of Sumedang, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday evening.
ET was transferred on Friday to an isolation room after showing bird flu symptoms, he added.
Four other people here have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
Toto, a doctor at the National Coordination Center for Bird Flu, said that as of Wednesday 17 people were being treated as possible bird flu cases across hospitals on Java island, while one other was being monitored in Bali.
More than 60 people have died in East Asia from the virus since 2003.
Indonesia was criticized for moving too slowly when bird flu first appeared in poultry stocks two years ago, but has promised in recent days to step up the fight.
But senior Ministry of Health official Hariadi Wibisono said on Thursday the government needed help.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made fighting bird flu one of the government's top priorities.
On Monday he outlined measures to tackle the virus that included seeking licenses to make antiviral drugs as well as reviewing the budget to see if more funds could be allocated.
However, the government has rejected calls to slaughter all poultry in bird-flu infected areas -- which experts claim is the best way to contain the virus' spread, saying it cannot afford to compensate farmers.
The European Union, WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization have pledged assistance.
"We have many international commitments, but we need immediate realization," Wibisono said. "We have the health workers, what we urgently need is the equipment and capacity building."
A senior World Bank official, meanwhile, said Indonesia was behind regional neighbors in addressing the H5N1 virus.
"Some (Asian) countries that have been very aggressive with culling and (poultry farmer) compensation have a better handle on the situation," said Homi Kharas, the bank's East Asia and Pacific Region's chief economist.
Scientists warn that continued contact between infected birds and humans might eventually result in the virus mutating into a form that could rapidly spread among people, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. (Additional reporting by The Jakarta Post's Yuli Tri Suwarni)