Indonesia has bird flu victim no.68

Nov 21 2005

According to reports a 35-year-old man Indonesian is the latest suspected victim of the avian flu virus.

Apparently the World Health Organization (WHO) is still waiting for lab test results being carried out in Hong Kong to confirm if the death was caused by the H5N1 strain.

At the same time China has reported new outbreaks among birds in four provinces.

The H5N1 strain is endemic among birds in many Asian countries, but to date it has only killed humans who have had direct contact with them.

If the results prove to be positive, the man will be the 68th person to die from the H5N1 flu strain.

Health experts worldwide fear the virus could trigger a human pandemic if it mutates and becomes transmissible among people.

According to the WHO, so far as many as 130 people in five different countries, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, have been diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of the avian flu, and around half of those have died from the disease.

China's two new outbreaks of the virus among birds, are its 16th and 17th, and provinces are ramping up measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

China's Agriculture Ministry has reported that its laboratories have confirmed cases in four provinces in north, west, and central parts of the nation.

In an outbreak in one northern province 176 ducks, geese and chickens died before the cause of death was confirmed by a state laboratory as the H5N1 strain.

The same strain had apparently already killed 3,500 geese in central China, and veterinarians have culled the remaining poultry near the affected area.

In the last month China has been battling to control more than a dozen outbreaks of flu among poultry and has reported that two people have died from the virus, along with another suspicious death.

Many experts believe that migrating birds are spreading the virus.

Nevertheless China's health minister has been quoted as saying the virus has basically been brought under control.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been urging nations to make immediate preparations for a possible pandemic of bird flu.

Annan says even though it is still unclear if the H5N1 strain will ever gain the ability to infect large numbers of people, world leaders cannot ignore the threat it poses.