Indonesia: Lab confirms two more human bird flu deaths

An Indonesian man and child died earlier this month of bird flu, the health minister said today, after receiving confirmation from a WHO-affiliated laboratory.

Siti Fadila Supari said the death of the 39-year-old security guard and the eight-year-old boy raised Indonesia’s human toll from the H5N1 virus to 11.

“Yes,” she said when asked if a laboratory had confirmed the two deaths.

The virus has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and ducks since it started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, and has jumped to humans, killing at least 71.

Most human cases of bird flu have been traced back to contact with sick birds. But experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily spread among people, possibly triggering a pandemic.

The man and child who died earlier this month both came from Indonesia’s teeming capital.

Though health officials were not sure how they contracted the disease, birds in their neighbourhoods tested positive for the H5N1 virus.