Nurse ill in Indonesia

[1] Indonesia - West Java
Date: Fri 2 Jun 2006
From: Cat Bachman
Source: Antara News, Indonesian News Agency, Fri 2 Jun 2006 [edited]



A 25-year-old nurse is currently being treated at the Hasan Sadikin
Hospital here for bird flu-like symptoms. She was admitted to the
hospital which has been treating a number of bird flu patients on
Thursday evening [1 Jun 2006].

"When she arrived at this hospital last night, her body temperature
was very high, namely 39.6 degrees Celsius [103 F], but now it has
decreased to 37 degrees Celsius [98.6 F]," Hadi Jusuf, head of the
bird flu medical treatment unit of the hospital, said here on Friday
[2 Jun 2006]. The hospital was planning to send the patient's blood
sample to the laboratory of the Health Development and Research Body
in Jakarta on Friday [2 Jun 2006]. The result of the laboratory test
is expected within the next 3 days, he said. "We could not confirm
[that she had contracted H5N1 avian influenza], although she had
earlier had contacts with 18-year-old and 10-year-old siblings, who
died of avian influenza recently," he said.

The ailing nurse had never had contact with poultry, but she had
treated [her?] sibling at Ujungberung Hospital, where she worked as a
nurse. If she is confirmed of being infected by bird flu virus, it
would be the first case of human-to-human transmission of the virus
[i.e. transmission from patient to nurse - Mod.CP], he said.

Meanwhile, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) announced recently
that international health investigators were finding no evidence that
efficient transmission of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
has emerged from [i.e. spread beyond] a family cluster of cases in
Indonesia's province of North Sumatra.

As of 29 May 2006, according to the WHO the H5N1 virus has caused 127
deaths in 224 cases worldwide since it was detected in humans in late
2003. In all but a handful of cases, humans have become infected
through direct contact with ailing birds, their feces or blood.
Indonesia has detected 48 cases of H5N1, 31 of those appearing since
January 2006, and ending in 36 fatalities.

--
Cat Bachman