Three Indonesian children in bird flu scare
Three Indonesian children, two of them sisters, are believed to have contracted bird flu and are being treated in hospital, a senior Health Ministry official said today.
Laboratory tests have yet to be carried out on blood samples taken from the patients, but “early indications” show that they have the H5N1 virus, said Hariadi Wibisono.
Two sisters, aged 10 and 6, and an 18-month-old boy from the house next door were undergoing treatment in the infectious diseases unit of the Adam Malik hospital in Medan on Sumatra island, he said.
The condition of the patients, whose names were no released for publication, was stable.
Health Minister Siti Fadila Supari told reporters at the hospital that “their condition at the time being is good,” but they had symptoms of pneumonia.
Dr Luhur Soeroso said: “They are OK. They are just suffering from the usual fever, flu and cough.”
They were taken to the hospital because the neighbours found dead chickens near their houses and they tested positive for bird flu, Soeroso said.
Meanwhile, the government said it had culled 10,000 chickens in the immediate area believed to be the source of the latest outbreak.
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