INDONESIA yesterday said an outbreak of bird flu in its teeming capital could become an epidemic as health and agricultural experts from around the world converged on Jakarta to help control the virus.

TWO children have been hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, and the government put the country on high alert yesterday as it struggled to contain a virus that has killed four people.

An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu, in the country’s first human case of the disease that has so far killed 54 people in south east Asia, health officials said today.

BIRD flu has killed three house cats in Thailand, a development the World Health Organisation described as “very dangerous” because of pets’ close contact with people.

Bird flu has killed three house cats in Thailand, a development the World Health Organisation described as “very dangerous” because of pets’ close contact with people.