Indonesian boy dies of bird flu

An 11-year-old Indonesian boy has died of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising the national death toll from the disease to 53, the director of the hospital where the child was being treated said today.

The boy, who was not named by officials, was admitted to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Diseases on Thursday and died last night, said Dr Santoso Suroso.

He was believed to have become infected by dead chickens near his home in south Jakarta, Dr Suroso added.

Almost all of the fatal human cases have been linked to contact with chickens or their droppings.

However, the World Health Organisation said the virus passed among humans in one large cluster of infections in a single family on Sumatra Island earlier this year.

Indonesia has been criticised for failing to aggressively attack the virus in poultry, either by mass slaughter or vaccination. It has said it lacks the resources to compensate farmers for slaughtered birds.

As of October 11, the H5N1 strain of bird flu had killed at least 148 people worldwide out of 253 cases since it started ravaging poultry stocks in Asia three years ago, according to the Who.