Indonesia's human bird flu deaths hit 37

Both died on May 23 in the city of Bandung, becoming the seventh case of family members, or clusters, hit by the disease in Indonesia, he said.

The laboratory also confirmed that a 14-year-old girl from Solok, West Sumatra, had been hit by the virus, Kandun said. Indonesia’s total number of confirmed cases now is 50, of which 37 were fatal, he said.

Worldwide, bird flu has now killed at least 125 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Kandun said all of the victims in the seven clusters were blood relatives, not spouses or in-laws, supporting an unproved theory that some people may have a genetic susceptibility to bird flu.

The two most recent siblings had a history of contact with dead birds, Kandun said.

A day after they died, animal health officials in the province found four chickens with the virus and culled up to 500 poultry within one kilometre (half a mile) of the victims’ house, he said.

Neighbours also reported that a number of chickens had suddenly died days before the victims were hospitalised.

Most human cases of bird flu have been traced to contact with infected poultry.

Experts are puzzled why six of seven Indonesians from a family in a North Sumatra village died from the H5N1 virus. An eighth was buried before tests could be done, but she is believed to have also been infected.

No links to sick birds could be found, raising the possibility of human-to-human infection. However, no other cases have been reported and the virus has not mutated, officials said.

Health officials fear that the bird flu virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans and possibly trigger a global pandemic.