Bird flu virus claims another human victim
A 20-year-old woman died of bird flu early today, bringing the number of people killed by the virus in hardest-hit Indonesia to 64, health and hospital officials said.
The victim was from the West Java village of Karangpawitan, where at least four other people also have fallen ill with symptoms of the disease, said Yogi Suprayogi, a spokesman at Slamet Hospital where she was admitted on Friday.
“She was in really bad condition when she came here,” said Suprayogi, adding that the woman apparently had contact with dead chickens a week before she was admitted.
Hundreds of chickens have dropped dead in the village in recent days and officials were heading to the area, 125 miles south-east of the capital Jakarta, to test other residents for the disease, he said.
The H5N1 virus has prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, and has caused the deaths of 167 people worldwide, including Indonesia’s latest victim, according to the World Health Organisation.
Most people killed so far have been infected by domestic fowl and the virus remains hard for humans to catch.
However, experts fear it could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans, sparking a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.
