More grief for Indonesia

Indonesian man sickened by the H5N1 bird flu virus, new family cluster feared
The Associated Press

Published: September 26, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia An Indonesian man hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu has the disease, health officials confirmed Tuesday, pointing to a possible new family cluster in the nation hardest hit by the virus.

The older brother of the 20-year-old patient — who is being treated in the city of Bandung — died Sunday with symptoms of the disease before samples could be taken, said Fatimah Resmiati, a West Java health official.

Their 15-year-old sister has a high fever and respiratory problems and is also being treated as a suspected bird flu case, officials at Hasan Sadikin hospital said.

Resmiati suggested that the siblings could represent a new family cluster of the disease.

Experts closely monitor such cases for signs that the virus may have mutated into a form more easily passed between humans.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 146 people worldwide since it started ravaging poultry stocks in Asia three years ago, hitting Indonesia the hardest, according to the World Health Organization.

At least 51 people have died across the sprawling archipelago, most of them on the densely populated island of Java, and another 17 patients have been sickened.

At present it is difficult for people to catch — with most infections being linked to close contact with infected birds or their droppings. But experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is more easily transmissible between humans.

Gunawan, the cousin of the three family members believed to have been affected in recent days, said the siblings had been in contact with chicken carcasses, feeding them to their pet dog.

It was not immediately clear if the dead birds were infected with bird flu.