| Indonesia bird flu death verified -
04-06-2006, 08:42 PM
The World Health Organization has confirmed that a boy who died in West Java, Indonesia, last week was a victim of bird flu.
The 15-year-old boy becomes Indonesia's 37th confirmed death from the virus. A local laboratory had earlier detected the H5N1 strain.
Indonesia has had more bird flu deaths this year than any other nation and overall only Vietnam has had more.
More than 120 people have died of bird flu, mostly in Asia, since late 2003.
Permanent infection
The 15-year-old boy, from the town of Tasikmalaya, died on 30 May in the provincial capital, Bandung.
A Hong Kong laboratory is testing samples from a seven-year-old girl who died last week on the outskirts of Jakarta. Again, a local laboratory has tested positive for H5N1.
Her 10-year-old brother died three days later but was not sampled for the virus.
Last month, Indonesia registered avian flu cases at the rate of about three a week.
The World Organisation for Animal Health recently said the disease now appeared to be permanently infecting poultry in Indonesia.
The H5N1 virus cannot yet pass easily from one person to another.
Experts, however, fear the virus could mutate at some point in the future, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.  | 
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