Eight-year-old boy declared bird flu positive

Eight-year-old boy declared bird flu positive

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

An eight-year-boy identified as Ilham Junaidi was declared bird
flu positive on Monday, bringing the number of bird flu cases to
nine in the country, a hospital official says.

Sulianti Saroso Hospital spokesman Ilham Patu, however, was
quick to dismiss suggestions that Ilham, a younger brother of Ina
Sholati, who died of bird flu last week, had contracted the
disease from his deceased elder sister.

"Although he had close contact with Ina, Ilham did not get the
disease from her. You see, Ina had many birds in her house, and
the boy (Ilham) often came and played with them," he said.

Nineteen-year-old Ina died on Oct. 28 in Husada Insani
Hospital in Tangerang, after several days of treatment. She was
declared to have died of bird flu last week.

He said that the hospital believed Ilham and Ina contracted
the virus from the birds.

Patu said his hospital had received results of a laboratory
test at the World Health Organization-sanctioned laboratory in
Hong Kong, which confirmed that Ilham had avian influenza.

"We received the results last week from WHO. He tested
positive for bird flu. We are treating him in the hospital.
However, his condition is improving," he told The Jakarta Post.

According to WHO, Ina and Ilham were the eighth and ninth bird
flu patients in Indonesia -- two in Lampung and seven in Greater
Jakarta. Five have died since July, while the condition of the
other four are improving.

"The total number of patients who have tested bird flu
positive is nine as two daughters of the first victim tested
negative for bird flu," WHO public relations officer Sari P.
Setiogi told the Post.

Iwan Siswara Rafei was the first recorded bird flu fatality in
Indonesia. He and his two daughters died in July. Earlier, the
two girls were assumed to have been infected with bird flu but
later both WHO and the Ministry of Health dropped them from the
list of bird flu fatalities.

Patu said the Sulianti Saroso Hospital was still treating
Ina's daughter and nephew as well as a nurse.

"Both her daughter and nephew tested negative for bird flu.
They don't have bird flu symptoms and seem to be in good health.
However, we are still waiting for the test results of a nurse who
took care of Ina," he said.

Patu said that they had sent blood samples of the nurse to the
WHO-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong to find out whether she
was infected or not, while the laboratory of the Ministry of
Health was performing a second test.

He said the nurse tested negative for bird flu in the first
test but could not be declared free of bird flu until the second
test plus one from WHO confirmed it.

"We hope we can get the result sometime this week. If she
tests positive then there is a great possibility that she got the
virus from Ina. The nurse has no history of being in close
contact with birds or chicken," Patu said.

He said that if the nurse tested positive then it could be
concluded that the bird flu virus had been transmitted from one
human to another.