Indonesia warns of bird flu epidemic in city

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.

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the emergence of sporadic human cases of bird flu in recent months in and around Jakarta, home to 12 million people, might become an epidemic if the number of cases continued to increase.

She was speaking after announcing an initial test on a five-year-old girl who died on Wednesday after suffering from bird flu symptoms was negative for the virus.