Bird flu suspected in three deaths in Indonesia

This article follows up on the article posted July 13th.
Notice in this article that there was no evidence of the people being in contact with poultry.


Indonesia suspects three recent deaths in a single family were caused by bird flu, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said.

The deaths of a father and two young daughters in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta, if confirmed, would be the first from avian influenza.

"We suspect it was caused by bird flu," Ms Supari said.

She said the first girl had died several days ago and was already buried, but tests on the other girl and the father had been conducted.

"The second test showed there are signs this may be caused by avian influenza," Ms Supari said.

She said authorities were concerned of possible human-to-human transmission as there was no evidence of contact with poultry.

"The first test showed negative for the H5N1 virus, then we conducted a second test, which showed signs of the H5N1 virus," Ms Supari said.

She said more samples were being sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for testing and results should be known within a week.

The two girls were aged one and eight.

-Reuters