Indonesia confirms two human bird flu cases: WHO
GENEVA (Reuters) - Indonesia has confirmed two new cases of human bird flu, the first officially reported since September in the country which remains the hardest-hit by the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
A nine-year-old girl in Riau province developed symptoms on November 7 after poultry apparently died at her home, the WHO said in a statement. She was hospitalized five days later and discharged on November 22 after recovering.
A two-year-old girl from East Jakarta died on November 29 after developing symptoms on November 18, it said. “Investigations into the source of her infection suggest exposure at a live bird market.”
The two latest cases took Indonesia’s known number of bird flu infections to 139, including 113 deaths, since 2003, according to the United Nations health agency.
It was not immediately clear why the WHO toll does not include a 15-year-old Indonesian girl in central Java whose doctor said she had died in early November. Presence of the virus had been confirmed in a health ministry lab, according to Agus Suryanto, head of the medical team treating the girl.
Worldwide, there have been 389 cases including 246 fatalities since 2003, WHO says. Vietnam has the second highest number of cases (106) among 15 countries with known human cases.
Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear that the H5N1 virus might mutate into a form easily passed from human to human, sparking a pandemic which could kill millions.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu in central Java, a health official said on Wednesday, bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 113. The girl died last week after being treated at the Doctor Karyadi hospital in Semarang. “It has been confirmed by health ministry labs,” said Agus Suryanto,
Full Post: Indonesian teenager dies of bird flu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian girl of 21 months has contracted bird flu and is in hospital in stable condition, a health ministry official said on Monday. She is the 52nd case among humans in Egypt and the second of this winter season. The girl, named as Asmaa Mohamed Salah Ismail, showed the first symptoms on Friday
Full Post: Egyptian girl has bird flu, 2nd case this season
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ian Ransom BEIJING (Reuters) - A woman in eastern China has died and a 2-year-old girl is critically ill in the north after becoming infected with bird flu, the Chinese Health Ministry said on Sunday. After not reporting a single human infection in almost a year, China has now confirmed three cases of the H5N1 virus
Full Post: China reports two new cases of bird flu, one dead
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIJING (Reuters) - China faces a “grim” situation in preventing and controlling human cases of bird flu, the health minister said, after announcing four human infections in the last two weeks and three deaths. Health Minister Chen Zhu called for hospitals to spare more resources in diagnosing and treating bird flu and more cooperation between agriculture
Full Post: China warns of “grim” fight against deadly bird flu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has warned of the risk of further human cases of bird flu in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday after reporting two new cases over the weekend. Until this month China had not seen a single human infection in almost a year, but it has now confirmed three cases of
Full Post: China warns of bird flu risk over Lunar New Year