A four-year-old boy who died in Indonesia is the sixth suspected fatal victim of bird flu in the last week, health workers said on Tuesday. The boy died on Monday at Sayidiman Hospital at Magetan, in East Java, less than 10 minutes after arriving, Sudarsih, a nurse, told Agence France-Presse.
She said he was suffering symptoms of the virus, which has been confirmed as killing 20 Indonesians, and had a history of contact with poultry.
The boy’s death follows five recent suspected bird-flu deaths: a pregnant woman (25) on Monday; a 10-year-old Saturday; a brother and sister last Wednesday; and a three-year-old last Tuesday.
The woman was from Jakarta, where most of Indonesia’s bird flu deaths have been recorded, but the siblings and 10-year-old were from Central Java’s Boyolali district, and the three-year-old died in Central Java’s Semarang.
Local positive tests, which are usually considered reliable, are sent to a World Health Organisation (WHO)-affiliated laboratory abroad for confirmation. Indonesia’s last confirmed fatality was on February 25.
In Jakarta, five more suspected bird-flu patients were admitted overnight at Sulianti Saroso Hospital, the capital’s main centre for treating bird-flu patients, its deputy director, Sardikin Giriputro, said.
The five, two of them children, came from several districts in Jakarta and the nearby town of Bekasi in West Java, and had all been in contact with sick chickens, Giriputro said.
Hospital spokesman Ilham Patu said the hospital was now treating a total of seven suspected bird-flu patients. Five people were discharged on Monday after being cleared, he said.
In East Java some 200 animal-husbandry officials held a mass prayer in the hope that divine intervention may ward off an outbreak of deadly avian influenza among birds there, state news agency Antara reported.
The prayer was led by a local ulema, or Islamic teacher, at East Java’s animal-husbandry office, and was also attended by local lawmakers, poultry farm owners, veterinarians and orphans.
It was followed by a traditional Javanese ceremony to ward off evil that included the consumption of rice and rice porridge, Antara said.
Infections have been found in birds in 26 of Indonesia’s 33 provinces.
Experts fear that H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 90 people since 2003, mostly in Asia, may mutate into a form that can pass between humans, sparking a deadly pandemic. — AFP