Case numbers rise in ?cluster in Indonesia

Indonesia confirms its 60th H5N1 case

Aug 23, 2006 (CIDRAP News) – Indonesia has confirmed its 60th human case of H5N1 avian influenza, this one in a 6-year-old girl who is recovering, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

The girl is from Bekasi, a city southeast of Jakarta in West Java, not part of the Cikelet subdistrict, where several recent cases and suspected cases sparked concern about possible human-to-human transmission.

The girl became ill Aug 6 and was hospitalized Aug 11 but is improving, the WHO said. Bloomberg News reported today that she was in Sulianti Saroso Hospital in Jakarta.

The Bloomberg story said dead chickens had been seen in the girl's neighborhood, but the WHO said only that the source of her infection is under investigation.

Forty-six of the 60 H5N1 cases in Indonesia have been fatal, for a 77% case-fatality rate. The WHO's global H5N1 case count is 241 cases with 141 deaths, for a case-fatality rate of 59%.

Test results are awaited in another suspected H5N1 case in Indonesia, involving a 35-year-old woman from Simalungun regency in North Sumatra province, according to Bloomberg. The health minister said the woman fell ill Aug 21.

In other news, a World Bank official said Indonesia needs an estimated $120 million a year to vaccinate chickens and compensate farmers for culling, but its vaccine budget covers only 10% of that amount, according to the Bloomberg report. The official, Louise F. Scura, made the statements at a meeting between the Indonesian government and donor countries.