Health News
Bird flu kills Indonesian woman, country's death toll at 92
Dec 11, 2007, 10:18 GMT
Jakarta - A 28-year-old Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the H5N1 avian influenza virus to 92 - the world's highest, a Health Ministry official said Tuesday.
The woman from Tanggerang district town in Banten province on the outskirts of the capital, died Monday at Jakarta's Persahabatan Hospital, designated to treat cases of avian flu, said Ningrum, an official at the Health Ministry's bird-flu information centre.
Ningrum said the woman fell sick on December 1 and sought medical treatment at Sari Asih Hospital in Tanggerang three days later. She was admitted to Persahabatan Hospital on December 8 with fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. She died two days later.
Ningrum said the Health Ministry is still investigating the history of the woman's illness, but added that poultry were founded in her neighbouring areas.
Her death was Indonesia's 92nd out of 114 diagnosed cases of bird flu in humans. Both figures are the highest in the world. At least 208 people have died in 12 countries in Asia and Africa of the disease, according to World Health Organization statistics.
The most-common way to contract the H5N1 virus is through contact with infected fowl. Although bird flu remains mainly an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate and spread from human to human, turning into a pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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