Bird flu death

A 16-YEAR-OLD Indonesian boy died from bird flu yesterday, officials in Jakarta said, citing local test results.

If confirmed, the death would bring the country’s tally to 43, the highest in the world.

Normally reliable tests performed at a local laboratory showed that the boy who died had the H5N1 virus, said Dr Santoso Suroso, the director of the capital’s infectious diseases hospital.

The boy, whose name was not released, was admitted to hospital on Saturday.

He was reported to have had contact with sick chickens at his home, just east of Jakarta, health officials said.

If confirmed by a World Health Organisation-accredited laboratory, the death will be

Indonesia’s 43rd from the H5N1 virus since July 2005, a third of which have occurred this year.