H5N1 Strain of Bird flu Re-emerges in Asian Countries

After a yearlong break, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has again entrapped the Asian countries, killing a teenager in the world’s hardest-hit country, Indonesia and infecting people in Vietnam and China.

The 14-year-old Indonesian boy on the outskirts of Jakarta died from bird flu Wednesday, just four days after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, said Deputy Director Tjandra Yoga Aditama of the Persahabtan Hospital.

It was the country’s first H5N1 fatality in six weeks. Before this, a 35-year-old woman was tested positive for bird flu and later reported died from the bird flu at a hospital in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Nov. 28.

Since 2003 it began destroying Asian poultry stocks, the H5N1 bird flu strain has killed 58 Indonesians, including the recent bird flu casualty, which is more than a third of the world's total. The virus has infected 263 people in 10 countries since its occurrence, killing 157 of them.

A second Indonesian bird flu victim, a 37-year-old woman from Banten Province on Java island, was taken to hospital on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

The woman is still in critical condition, Aditama said.

In China, a farmer in Anhui Province has been confirmed to have contracted the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Ministry of Health announced Wednesday.

The 37-year-old farmer, surnamed Li fell ill and admitted to the hospital with symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Dec. 10. However, the man has fully recovered and was discharged from hospital on Jan. 6, the health ministry said.

The ministry said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the case on Monday, country's first reported human case of the disease in six months, and that it has conveyed all virus related information to the health agencies of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Though the man had poultry in his backyard, but Chinese experts were still trying to determine the actual source of infection, said Joanna Brent, a WHO spokeswoman in Beijing.

In Vietnam, a government report released Wednesday confirmed spread of bird flu in a fourth Vietnamese province, Kien Giang after the Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang provinces. The report came after the results of tests on 70 ducks that showed they had died from the H5N1 virus.

According to Dinh Cong Than, director of the provincial department of animal health, around 2,000 ducks have been killed or slaughtered over the weekend. Before this, the outbreaks that occurred in other three provinces last month killed or forced the slaughter of some 30,000 birds.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus could deepen its roots nationwide in the coming weeks, and the national capital, Hanoi has urged all local leaders to work more aggressively to stop the virus from spreading at a more advanced stage.

Vietnam has had no human bird flu cases since November 2005, but the health officials are worried human cases could follow during Lunar new year holiday, known as Tet, beginning next month.

A number of new poultry outbreaks, infections and human deaths were reported during cooler months when the virus typically surges.