More avian flu suspected near site of Indonesian cluster case
Seven people, inlcuding three children, are being treated for suspected H5N1 avian influenza infection in the Karo district of North Sumatra in Indonesia, near where the largest human cluster case occurred in May. This was where limited human-to-human transmission was documented in an extended family.
Tests have not yet confirmed the H5N1 infection, but the patients are being treated as if they have the disease.
Indonesian health officials said the suspected cases fall into two clusters, one involving two sisters and the other consisting of three family members and two of their neighbours.
Two sisters aged ten and six and an 18-month-old boy who is their neighbour are believed to have been infected by diseased chickens.
Indonesia has reported the most human fatalities this year as authorities struggle to control the avian influenza virus in poultry in about 80 percent of the nation’s 33 provinces.
Indonesia’s official avian flu toll is 54 cases with 42 deaths, which ties it with Vietnam for the most deaths. All of Indonesia’s human H5N1 cases have occurred since mid-2005.
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