The death of a 39-year-old man from Indonesia has been confirmed to be bird flu related as revealed by a test conducted by a local health agency, according to official sources. If this were again confirmed by World Health Organization recognized testing centers, it would increase the Indonesian death toll due to bird flu to12.
'We got the local test result around Friday. He had contact with dead chickens,' Hariadi Wibisono, the ministry's director of eradication of animal-borne diseases.Following severe bird flu related symptoms, the infected man was admitted in a hospital based at Jakarta, authorized to treat bird flu patients. The man died on 1st January, in the same hospital.
No case of human-to-human bird flu transmission has been recorded so far. However it is feared that it the H5N1 virus mutates to a more virulent form, it could lead to a pandemic, killing millions of people worldwide. The man died on 1st January, in the same hospital.
In response to the above situation, the Indonesian government has highlighted the need for nearly $1 billion, to effectively combat bird flu infection. Monitoring of the domestic birds has revealed the presence of the virus in nearly 2/3rd of the 33 provinces in Indonesia.
