|
Eight people have died from bird flu in Indonesia so far this year, all of them from Jakarta and its surrounding sprawl. -- PHOTO: AP
|
JAKARTA - A 31-YEAR-OLD Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, the health ministry said on Friday, bringing the toll to 102 in the nation worst hit by the deadly virus.
The woman, who is from the Jakarta satellite city of Tangerang, died while being treated at the capital's Persahabatan hospital.
Eight people have died from bird flu in Indonesia so far this year, all of them from Jakarta and its surrounding sprawl.
The bird flu information centre said the victim lived in a neighbourhood with backyard farms and a traditional market selling poultry.
'The 31-year-old woman died late Thursday at 10.30pm (1530 GMT) in hospital,' said Ningrum, an official at the ministry's bird flu information centre.
The victim was first admitted to a private hospital in her home district with bird flu symptoms on January 22.
Two laboratory tests on the woman earlier in the week confirmed she was infected with the virus.
Two positive results from tests on blood and tissue samples are needed before Indonesian authorities confirm a bird flu infection.
There have been 124 confirmed bird flu cases in Indonesia since the disease surfaced.
Humans are typically infected with bird flu by coming into direct contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the H5N1 virus may mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, sparking a deadly global pandemic.
The concern stems from past influenza pandemics. A pandemic in 1918, just after the end of World War I, killed 20 million people worldwide.
The virus is now endemic in birds across nearly all of Indonesia's 33 provinces. -- AFP
|
