Indonesia bird flu deaths rise to 48

The number of suspected bird flu cases in Indonesia rose to 48 today as the health minister appealed for people not to shun patients suffering from the virus, saying close contact with them was not dangerous.

Siti Fadili Supari was photographed in newspapers yesterday kissing a nine-year-old boy who had returned from a hospital where he was treated for bird flu after rumours spread in the neighbourhood that it was unsafe to get close to him.

Supari urged neighbours to go about their life as normal, saying that the virus could only be contracted from infected poultry, Kompas daily reported.

“This boy is proof that it is possible to fight bird flu,” Supari was quoted as saying. “He is a boy with muscles of steel and bones of iron.”

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing at least 65 people - more than 40 of them in Vietnam – and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. But the World Health Organisation has warned that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans – possibly triggering a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Indonesia has seen six deaths from bird flu since July.

The number of suspected cases under investigation at hospitals in nine provinces in the country rose to 48 after several patients were admitted overnight, said Health Ministry official Muhammad Riyadi.

Tests are being carried out to see whether they have contracted the virus, he said.

Patients showing symptoms of the disease – including high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties – and who have been in recent contact with chickens are considered suspected cases in Indonesia.