Bird Flu claims more lives, Scientists warn it could spread from Indonesia

Bird flu in Indonesia claimed 2 more lives, taking the total death toll of the country to 107, said the health ministry on Monday. This is the worst hit the country has taken from the virus. The most recent victims were a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

According to ministry official Lily Sulistyowati, both of them died last week. They were living in separate suburbs of the capital Jakarta, she said, adding that the source of the infection was being investigated.

The boy, who belonged to the West Java town of Subang breathed his last on March 26. He had been under a week of treatment in a small hospital in the region. Later, he was shifted to the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in the provincial capital of Bandung, where he died on the very day he was admitted.

With only a gap of one day, a girl from the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi died at the Persahabatan Hospital, which is among the major hospitals to become the center of treatment for bird flu patients.

Meanwhile, a 22-month girl from West Sumatra province was confirmed to be suffering from bird flu and, was accordingly getting treatment in a hospital, said Sulistyowati. The baby's condition was said to be improving, she said.

132 bird flu cases in human with 107 deaths, have been this far confirmed in Indonesia making it the worst affected country. Ever since the virus began wreaking havoc on poultry stocks across Asia in 2003, Indonesia has regularly been under its grip and has constantly recorded human deaths from the disease.

Humans do not easily catch Bird flu but health experts fret over fears that the virus could mutate into a form that can be transmitted among humans, leading to a risk of initiating a pandemic. Most human cases, till now have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Scientists cautioned that Indonesia with millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.