Another patient tests positive for bird flu
A 16-year-old patient tested positive for a virulent strain of bird flu, bringing the number of Indonesians infected by the virus to 12 – seven of whom died, a health official said today.
The boy is being treated at a hospital in Bandung, West Java province, said senior Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono, adding that a Hong Kong laboratory confirmed he had the disease.
At least 67 people have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia since 2003, the bulk of them in Vietnam and Thailand.
Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person. So far, almost all human cases have been traced to contact with birds.
Wibisono said the 16-year-old patient in Bandung probably had contact with infected chickens. His condition was not immediately clear.
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