Indonesian girl dies from bird flu

A three-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu near Jakarta in the latest case of the virus to hit the sprawling country, a senior health ministry official said today.

Nyoman Kandun said the latest victim, identified only as AA, died in Cisauk village south-west of Jakarta.

“Local tests showed she was positively infected with the H5N1” strain of the bird flu virus, Kandun said, adding that the girl had reportedly had contact with birds.

If confirmed by a World Health Organisation-sanctioned test, Indonesia’s death toll from bird flu would rise to 41, trailing only Vietnam, where 42 people have died of the disease.

Vietnam, however, has not recorded any cases this year amid an aggressive culling policy. aggressive culling policy.

Indonesia has been criticised for not routinely culling fowl in infected area to stop spreading of the disease, but the government says it does not have enough money to compensate farmers.

Bird flu has killed at least 131 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the WHO.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that makes it more easily transmissible among humans.