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.