Donat
05-26-2006, 11:52 PM
Bird flu kills two siblings in Indonesia, preliminary tests find
By MARGIE MASON (AP Medical Writer)
From Associated Press
May 26, 2006 9:16 PM EDT
MEDAN, Indonesia - Preliminary tests have identified two new fatal cases of bird flu in Indonesia, and officials are investigating a separate case involving the largest family cluster ever reported.
The 192-nation World Health Assembly meanwhile agreed on Friday to speed up preparations for a possible bird flu pandemic by allowing member nations to establish a global warning system a year early.
World Health Organization officials so far have confirmed 33 human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia, out of 124 worldwide.
Indonesia's latest victims, an 18-year-old and his 10-year-old sister from West Java, died Tuesday in the state-run Hasan Sidikin hospital in Bandung, the capital city, said Achmad, an official at the ministry's special task force post for bird flu, who uses only one name. They died within hours of each other, less than a day after arriving at the hospital, he said.
Local tests found they were infected by the H5N1 virus, said Nyoman Kandun, head of the Health Ministry's office of communicable disease control.
The test results will be sent to a WHO laboratory for confirmation.
In Geneva, the chief decision-making body for WHO approved without debate a resolution allowing countries to immediately introduce a fast reporting system to guard against the start of a possible flu pandemic.
The bird flu warning system had been scheduled to start on June 15, 2007. But the resolution said countries could formally introduce it immediately because there is a "serious risk to human health, including the possible emergence of a pandemic virus, arising from ongoing outbreaks in poultry of highly pathogenic avian influenza."
The decision came as health officials probed a second family cluster in Indonesia's northern Sumatra, in which at least six of seven family members died of bird flu, the most recent on Monday. An eighth family member who died was buried before tests could be done, but she was also considered to be among those infected with the virus.
WHO officials have not been able to link the family members to contact with infected birds, and have said it's possible that limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. Similar isolated cases of transmission among humans is believed to have occurred in four or five other family clusters, said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson. The Indonesia case would be the largest ever reported.
WHO stressed that the virus has not mutated in any way and has shown no signs of spreading outside the family - all blood relatives who had very close contact with each other.
Experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus will eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, possibly sparking a pandemic. So far, the virus remains hard for people to catch, with most human cases linked to contact with infected birds.
A team of international health experts and villagers is closely monitoring the area where the family in the large cluster lived in northern Sumatra to ensure no one else experiences flu-like symptoms.
About 30 people in the village of Kubu Simbelang have been asked to stay inside their homes and avoid close contact with others as a precautionary measure, Thompson said.
Experts also are exploring whether the first woman sickened in the family may have had contact with sick or dead chickens. She worked at a market where chickens were sold and may have used chicken feces as a garden fertilizer, WHO officials have said.
A special task force will be established to help slaughter birds in the affected area and carry out poultry vaccinations, said Aburizal Bakrie, coordinating minister for people's welfare. Bakrie said anyone who hinders or resists efforts to control the bird flu virus could be jailed for up to one year.
The announcement came after villagers in Sumatra refused to cooperate with health officials, many of them blaming black magic for the deaths.
By MARGIE MASON (AP Medical Writer)
From Associated Press
May 26, 2006 9:16 PM EDT
MEDAN, Indonesia - Preliminary tests have identified two new fatal cases of bird flu in Indonesia, and officials are investigating a separate case involving the largest family cluster ever reported.
The 192-nation World Health Assembly meanwhile agreed on Friday to speed up preparations for a possible bird flu pandemic by allowing member nations to establish a global warning system a year early.
World Health Organization officials so far have confirmed 33 human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia, out of 124 worldwide.
Indonesia's latest victims, an 18-year-old and his 10-year-old sister from West Java, died Tuesday in the state-run Hasan Sidikin hospital in Bandung, the capital city, said Achmad, an official at the ministry's special task force post for bird flu, who uses only one name. They died within hours of each other, less than a day after arriving at the hospital, he said.
Local tests found they were infected by the H5N1 virus, said Nyoman Kandun, head of the Health Ministry's office of communicable disease control.
The test results will be sent to a WHO laboratory for confirmation.
In Geneva, the chief decision-making body for WHO approved without debate a resolution allowing countries to immediately introduce a fast reporting system to guard against the start of a possible flu pandemic.
The bird flu warning system had been scheduled to start on June 15, 2007. But the resolution said countries could formally introduce it immediately because there is a "serious risk to human health, including the possible emergence of a pandemic virus, arising from ongoing outbreaks in poultry of highly pathogenic avian influenza."
The decision came as health officials probed a second family cluster in Indonesia's northern Sumatra, in which at least six of seven family members died of bird flu, the most recent on Monday. An eighth family member who died was buried before tests could be done, but she was also considered to be among those infected with the virus.
WHO officials have not been able to link the family members to contact with infected birds, and have said it's possible that limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. Similar isolated cases of transmission among humans is believed to have occurred in four or five other family clusters, said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson. The Indonesia case would be the largest ever reported.
WHO stressed that the virus has not mutated in any way and has shown no signs of spreading outside the family - all blood relatives who had very close contact with each other.
Experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus will eventually mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, possibly sparking a pandemic. So far, the virus remains hard for people to catch, with most human cases linked to contact with infected birds.
A team of international health experts and villagers is closely monitoring the area where the family in the large cluster lived in northern Sumatra to ensure no one else experiences flu-like symptoms.
About 30 people in the village of Kubu Simbelang have been asked to stay inside their homes and avoid close contact with others as a precautionary measure, Thompson said.
Experts also are exploring whether the first woman sickened in the family may have had contact with sick or dead chickens. She worked at a market where chickens were sold and may have used chicken feces as a garden fertilizer, WHO officials have said.
A special task force will be established to help slaughter birds in the affected area and carry out poultry vaccinations, said Aburizal Bakrie, coordinating minister for people's welfare. Bakrie said anyone who hinders or resists efforts to control the bird flu virus could be jailed for up to one year.
The announcement came after villagers in Sumatra refused to cooperate with health officials, many of them blaming black magic for the deaths.