WHO helps with bird flu tests

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