Indonesia To Test 17 For Bird Flu In Sulawesi
Date: 14-Nov-08
Country: INDONESIA
JAKARTA - Seventeen people from the same neighbourhood in the Indonesian city of Makassar in South Sulawesi are due to be tested for bird flu after falling sick, a health ministry official said on Thursday. Chandra Yoga Adhitama, acting director-general of communicable disease control, said the group had been hospitalised after chickens in the surrounding area suddenly died.
"Some were hospitalised yesterday and some today. I think it is a precaution by our officials after chickens died there," Adhitama said.
He described the general health condition of the 17 as good and said that blood samples had been taken and would be sent to the health ministry laboratory in Jakarta for testing.
"We are continuing to monitor their condition," he said, adding that only four of the group were adults.
Suspected cluster cases can raise concerns about rare human-to-human transmission or that the virus might have mutated into a form that can pass easily among people.
The country's largest known cluster of bird flu cases in humans occurred in May 2006 in the Karo district of North Sumatra province, where as many as 7 people in an extended family died.
The World Health Organisation said at the time that limited human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out but that the virus samples from the scene did not show any significant genetic mutations.
Bird flu remains mainly an animal disease but experts fear the H5N1 virus might mutate into a pandemic strain that would sweep the globe, possibly killing millions and hobbling economies.
Indonesia has the highest toll of any nation and a health official said on Wednesday that a 15-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu in central Java, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 113.
(Reporting by Telly Nathalia; Editing by Ed Davies and Valerie Lee)
