Child dies of H5N1

Indonesian girl dies of suspected bird flu
Posted: 8/15/2006 8:35:27 AM

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Bird flu is suspected in the death of a nine-year-old girl in Indonesia.

If confirmed, she would be the 45th person in Indonesia to die from the H5N1 virus in just over a year.

The H5N1 strain has killed at least 139 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003. Indonesia has been hit hardest.

Most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds and is hard to catch. But experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

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