First human bird flu deaths in Indonesia spark vaccine plans

INDONESIA confirmed its first human deaths from bird flu yesterday — a man and his two daughters — bringing Asia’s toll from the disease to 57 people.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters lab tests from Hong Kong showed the 38-year-old and his two children, aged nine and one, had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

All three family members lived in a suburb of Jakarta and died earlier this month.

There are fears that human-to-human transmission may be involved.

Indonesia said last week it suspected the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus was responsible and blood and other samples were sent to Hong Kong for further testing.

Bird flu has swept through poultry populations in large parts of Asia since 2003.

Tens of millions of chickens have either died or been slaughtered, while bird flu has killed 38 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and now three in Indonesia.

The World Health Organisation has warned a bird flu pandemic is inevitable.

Bird flu poses a limited threat to humans as it cannot be spread easily from person to person. But experts fear the strain could eventually mutate to transmit between humans, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths across the world.

The news sparked a British Government announcement that it is to stockpile two million doses of a bird flu vaccine.

The vaccines will be used to protect key medical and emergency workers against a possible global pandemic of the flu which has hit Asia.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced that manufacturers are to be invited to tender for a contract to supply the H5N1 vaccine to be used as a "first line of defence".

British experts will now carry out further clinical studies on the H5N1 vaccine to learn more about how it works and how effective it could be.

Other countries, including France, Canada, Australia and the US have also announced plans to buy the vaccine.