WHO Confirms Indonesia Bird Flu Case
Nji Che - All Headline News Staff Writer Jakarta, Indonesia (AHN) - The World Health Organization on Monday confirmed an Indonesian teenager who died last week was killed by bird flu. The death of the 14-year-old boy has pushed up Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 39. The boy's samples were tested and showed positive at a WHO laboratory in Hong Kong. Over the last three years, Indonesia has reported the highest number of bird flu deaths. Thirty-nine people have so far died from the deadly H5N1 bird flu infection. Statistics show that Indonesia harbors about 1.2 billion chickens. Thirty percent of these chickens are raised in the yards of Indonesian homes. Bird flu has been reported in almost all the 33 provinces of the country. Officials are working to get rid of the virus in the country within the next couple of years. The country's lead bird flu official Delima Ashari told a local radio, "In 2008, Indonesia will be free from bird flu, Insha Allah." Ashari added that, "I realize that the immense size of Indonesia makes it not easy to handle and socialize strategies and change people's behavior on bird flu handling and how to live healthily with fowl." Last month, the virus killed seven members of a single family in North Sumatra. WHO officials said there could have been limited human-to-human transmission in the family. This deepened global fears over a possibility of human-to-human transmission which could one day lead |
