Pandemic fears as bird flu strikes

INDONESIA confirmed its fourth human death from bird flu yesterday and said another person was suspected of having the virus as global alarm grew that the disease would mutate and become a pandemic.

Speaking in New York on Thursday, World Health Organisation chief Lee Jong-wook said the virus was moving toward becoming transmissible by humans and that the international community had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and also spread to Russia and Europe.

Indonesian health officials said tests had shown bird flu killed a woman who died last week in a Jakarta hospital after she was admitted suffering from pneumonia and flu-like respiratory problems.

“It’s positive for H5N1,” director-general of disease control at the Health Ministry I Nyoman Kandun said.

The woman, 37, died last Saturday. She lived in south Jakarta near a chicken farm, although health officials have not said how she may have caught the virus.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said a person who had close contact with the woman was also suspected of having the virus, although that individual was healthy.

“We initially found positive signs but we need further testing because we cannot say it is a positive case before two confirmations,” Supari told a news conference.