Two 'bird flu' victims die, three more hospitalized

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two suspected bird flu patients, identified as Riska Hardiyati, 5, and Yessica Triana, 2, died on Wednesday after being treated at the Sulianti Saroso hospital in Sunter, North Jakarta, and Cikini Hospital in Central Jakarta respectively since Tuesday afternoon.

Riska, who was moved to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital after being treated at the Cempaka Putih Islamic Hospital in East Jakarta since Sept. 15, was taken by her family to be buried in their hometown in Cilacap, Central Java.

The Sulianti Saroso Hospital's deputy director Sardikin Giri Putro said that unless the health ministry laboratory declared otherwise, the hospital would state the cause of death as acute pneumonia.

"We must wait the results of the laboratory tests by the Ministry of Health as we have sent Riska's blood sample to them. Right now, we suspect that she died of acute pneumonia," he said.

Sardikin said Riska came to the hospital with symptoms of bird flu, including a high temperature, respiratory problems, acute pneumonia and a low leukocyte count.

She was suspected of having been infected by the bird flu virus after a chicken in her neighborhood died.

The hospital has treated Riska's remains as being potentially contaminated by bird flu, and her body was wrapped in plastic before being placed in a coffin.

All of Riska's family members, including her mother Maryati and father Suhardi, wore masks when they came to see her for the last time.

The hospital also asked family members to carefully bury her body and requested the Cilacap health agency to monitor Riska's burial.

Another suspected bird flu victim was named as Yessica, who received treatment at Cikini Hospital after the Sulianti Saroso Hospital, which only has room for four patients in its emergency unit, refused to treat her. She died at 5:00 a.m.

The Cikini hospital said they had sent a sample of her saliva to the Ministry of Health laboratory.

Earlier, the government confirmed that four people had died of avian influenza.

Last week, the government said that Rini Dini Prasetyaningsih, 37, who died earlier, tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. In July, Iwan Siswara and his two daughters from Tangerang, Banten, died of the virus.

Meanwhile, the Sulianti Saroso Hospital received three new patients on Wednesday suspected of having been infected with bird flu.

DW, 17, was brought by her family, who live in Cijantung, East Jakarta, to the hospital at 11:00 a.m. after she started coughing and suffering from respiratory problems and a high temperature.

Her family said that she had developed the symptoms after 19 of their chickens and four songbirds died recently.

At 11:30 a.m., another suspected bird flu patient from Bekasi, West Java, identified as JM, 9, was brought to the hospital. JM recently visited Ragunan zoo, which has been closed by the government since Monday after 19 of its captive birds tested positive for avian flu.

Later at 3:30 p.m., Wed, 18, who was running a high temperature, was taken to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital from the Pondok Kopi Islamic Hospital in East Jakarta.

With the three new patients, the Sulianti Saroso Hospital is now treating nine patients, with the others being WL, 3, F, 9, R, 3, AS, 28, an employee of Ragunan zoo, AM, 39, a street vendor at the zoo and MG, 7.