Five-year-old boy dies of H5N1 bird flu in Indonesia

The Indonesian government has confirmed another death in the country due to bird flu, an official said today.

The latest victim was a five-year-old boy who died on June 16 in Tulungagung, a town in East Java, said Nyoman Kandun of the Health Ministry.

A test by a WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong found that the boy was infected by the H5N1 virus, he said.

“We received the confirmation some two or three days ago,” Kandun said.

The H5N1 virus is considered endemic in poultry in most provinces across the sprawling archipelago.

The latest victim brought Indonesia’s human death toll from bird flu to 40, trailing only Vietnam, where 42 people have died of the disease.

Bird flu has killed at least 129 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003.