Girl, 8, dies of bird flu in Indonesia

An eight-year-old girl has died of bird flu in Indonesia – the country’s eighth death from the disease this year.

The health ministry said the girl, from the West Java district of Karawang, died on Tuesday in a Jakarta hospital which had been treating her since June 28.

She first developed a fever June 18, one day before going on holiday to Singapore, where a doctor diagnosed her with laryngitis, the ministry said on its website.

She returned five days later and was treated at a Karawang hospital before being transferred to Jakarta.

The ministry says the girl might have had contact with slaughtered chickens she and her father bought from a local market.

Bird flu has killed more than 350 people worldwide. Indonesia accounts for 158 of the deaths.