Posted 09 September 2006 @ 11:58
Updated 09 September 2006 @ 12:02
JAKARTA, 09 September 2006 - The World Health Organisation on Saturday acknowledged one more human bird flu death in Indonesia, making the total death toll in the worst hit country 48. The newest case acknowledged by the WHO was the death of a 14- year-old female from Makassar, South Sulawesi Province. She developed symptoms on 18 June, was hospitalised on 23 June and died the following day.
Some older cases, from 2005, were added to the WHO tally because of a recent change in the testing standards that the body sets for cases of the H5N1 virus. Those cases were already included in Indonesia's Health Ministry tally. "WHO is adding two cases in Indonesia, dating back to June and November of 2005," the WHO said in a statement on its official website. "The retrospectively confirmed cases bring the total in Indonesia to 63. Of these cases, 48 have been fatal."
The first retrospectively confirmed case was an 8-year-old female from Tangerang in Banten Province. She developed symptoms on 24 June 2005 and died on 14 July. She was part of a family cluster reported to WHO in July 2005. The second retrospectively confirmed case is a 45-year-old male from Magelang, Central Java Province. He developed symptoms on 25 November 2005 following direct contact with diseased poultry and subsequently recovered.
Indonesia has tallied the most deaths from bird flu in the world. Vietnam is the second worst affected country with 42 deaths out of 93 confirmed cases, but has reported no new cases this year while Indonesia has had 36. Bird flu is endemic in poultry in 29 of Indonesia's 33 provinces, affecting tens of millions of birds.
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