WHO helps with bird flu tests

DENPASAR: The World Health Organization has provided around Rp 300 million (about US$30,000) in cash assistance to the Bali provincial administration to take blood samples from people living in 42 villages on the island that could be susceptible to the avian influenza virus.

"Between 840 and 900 villagers will undergo blood tests to detect whether they have been infected or not," head of the Bali office of the Ministry of Health, Dewa Ketut Oka, said on Thursday.

"The blood samples will then be sent to (the WHO laboratory in) Hong Kong," he said.

The bird flu virus has so far killed five people in the country, but so far no one has been found to have been infected in Bali. -- Antara