Indonesia records 43rd death from bird flu

A 16-year-old Indonesian boy has died from bird flu, according to local test results that, if confirmed, would bring Indonesia’s death toll to 43 and make it the world’s hardest-hit country.

Normally reliable tests performed at a local laboratory showed that the boy who died late yesterday had the H5N1 virus, said Dr. Santoso Suroso, the director of the capital’s infectious diseases hospital, where he was treated for three days.

Grieving relatives buried Megi Saputra early today at a family plot shaded by jackfruit trees close to his home in Bekasi, just east of Jakarta. A short distance away from the cemetery, villagers were rearing chickens in coops.

“I knew about bird flu from the TV and radio, but when my son got sick I had no clue it was bird flu,” Megi’s mother Sadiah said after the funeral. “I had no idea he was going to leave me.”

She said Megi was initially diagnosed with typhoid and told to go home.

It was only four days after symptoms appeared that bird flu was suspected, and by then it was too late, said Sadiah, wiping away her tears.

Health officials said Megi was suspected of coming into contact with sick chickens near his home, where he lived with his parents and seven brothers and sisters.

Neighbour Hasan Basri said Megi kept racing pigeons, which had probably been infected by sick chickens in a nearby coop.

Another neighbour, 40-year-old Romlah who uses a single name, said she had seen posters warning about bird flu, but that the government “should intensify its campaign to prevent more deaths.” Door-to-door visits are needed to get the message to everyone, she said.

Health Ministry official Nyoman Kandun said Megi’s swab and blood samples have been sent to the United States for further testing.

If confirmed, the death will be logged as Indonesia’s 43rd from the H5N1 virus since July 2005, a third of which occurred this year.

Neighbouring Vietnam is the second worst hit at 42, but it has not recorded any deaths in 2006.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 135 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to WHO. That figure does not include today’s death in Indonesia.

Most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus – which remains hard for people to catch – will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

Experts say Indonesians will continue to die until the nation stops the rampant spread of infection among its hundreds of millions of backyard poultry.

“You’ve got to worry about the humans, but if you don’t clean up the animals, it doesn’t matter what you do,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US National Institutes of Health’s infectious disease chief said.

Vietnam largely controlled the spread of the virus by launching a nationwide mass vaccination campaign in poultry last year. Thailand, which has reported 16 deaths, relies on strong village-based surveillance and mass slaughtering when outbreaks are discovered.

Bird flu in Indonesia grabbed the world’s attention in May when seven members of a single family died of the virus – the largest recorded cluster to date.

The WHO concluded that limited human-to-human transmission likely occurred, but the virus did not spread beyond the blood family members.