Number of new cases mount

Indonesia's latest bird-flu victim refuses treatment Aug 14, 2006, 9:27 GMT

'Jakarta - An Indonesian teenager who is the country's 59th bird-flu case has refused to undergo medical treatment as the virus continues to spread in the world's worst-affected country, a health official said Monday. The 17-year-old boy from West Java's Garut district was confirmed to have the deadly H5N1 avian-influenza virus late Friday, Lily Sulistyowati, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Health Ministry, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. However, she said, the ministry has no power to compel him to undergo treatment. 'Our test result was positive, but since he refuses treatment, there's nothing we can do,' Lily said. It remained unknown why the boy was refusing treatment although his father picked him up from a hospital designated for bird-flu cases on Saturday and took him home, according to the Jakarta-based El-Shinta radio station. The latest case came after officials last week confirmed the deaths of two other teenagers from the virus, taking the number of the country's human deaths to 44, the highest in the world. Vietnam is second with 42 deaths but has had none this year, compared with 33 in Indonesia. The Jakarta government has come under fire for its slow response to bird flu, including its reluctance to cull chickens, after the disease was first discovered in the archipelago country in 2003. Bird flu is endemic in 27 of Indonesia's 33 provinces with millions of chickens and ducks infected. International health experts have said they fear H5N1 would mutate into a human-to-human virus and spark a pandemic that could kill tens of millions of people. Bird flu in Indonesia grabbed the worlds attention in May when seven members of a single family died of the virus - the largest recorded cluster to date. The World Health Organization concluded that limited human-to-human transmission likely occurred, but the virus did not spread beyond the blood family members. A total of 138 people have died of bird flu in nine countries in Asia and Africa, according to WHO. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur';