Indonesia's bird flu death toll hits 73

Apr 6, 2007, 11:04 GMT

Jakarta - An Indonesian teenager has died of bird flu, bringing the country's total number of human deaths from the H5N1 strain of the virus to 73, the world's highest, a health official said Friday.

The 15-year-old girl was from Central Jakarta and died late Thursday, after undergone four days treatment at the Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso Hospital, which is designated to treat bird-flu patients, said Joko of the Health Ministry's bird-flu centre.

'She died from bird flu,' Joko, who like many Indonesian goes by only one name, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Her death brings the toll from the H5N1 virus in Indonesia to 73 deaths from 93 human cases, the highest in the world in bird-flu deaths. Vietnam is second with 42 deaths but has not had a human death from the virus in more than a year.

The number of bird flu cases has increased rapidly in Indonesia. This year alone, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has claimed the lives of 16 people in the country.

Alarmed by a sudden spike in bird-flu deaths early this year, the Indonesian government declared a ban on backyard poultry farms in residential areas of nine provinces.

The ban, which started in mid-January for Jakarta and West Java and Banten provinces, was later extended across Java and beyond. In addition, the government placed tight restrictions on the movement and sale of poultry and poultry products across the nine provinces and is preparing more hospitals to treat human cases of the H5N1 virus.

Most bird-flu victims around the world have had direct or indirect contact with sick birds, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible among humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus may spread from Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria to other countries in Asia and Africa as the three countries have not been able to contain the disease.