Second Indonesian bird flu victim dies

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has engulfed another life in Indonesia, the hardest hit country by the virus, lifting national toll to 59. The H5N1 virus has also infected four other people in the country, indicating that the virus has deepened its roots nationwide.

The victim, a 37-year-old woman from Banten Province on Java island, died late Thursday, Runizar Ruesin, a Health Ministry official, reported.

The woman, who had been diagnosed as positive for the virus earlier this week and was taken to hospital on Wednesday, is the second Indonesian victim in six weeks after a 14-year-old Indonesian boy on the outskirts of Jakarta, who died from bird flu on Wednesday.

The recent H5N1 fatality has pushed the number of Indonesian bird flu victims to 59.
"The woman died yesterday at 7.35pm (2335 AEDT Thursday) because of organs malfunction which is caused by (bird flu) virus H5N1," Muchtar Ichsan, chief of bird flu management at Persahabatan Hospital in Jakarta, said.

The 42-year-old husband of the woman, who died yesterday, and their 18-year-old son are suffering from symptoms of fever and respiratory infection, the heath official said yesterday. The trio and two other women had been treated since Thursday at the same hospital for bird flu symptoms, Ichsan reported.

The women, one of whom had been tested positive for bird flu, while results for the others were still pending, have been placed on a respiratory device and are still in critical condition, health ministry official said.

Meanwhile, Japan fears that it could also be affected by the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain, as the virus has taken 2 lives within week in Indonesia and spreading across the Asian countries.

Hundreds of poultry on a farm in the Miyazaki area of southwestern Japan were reported killed on Wednesday and Thursday from a suspected virus, which according to Japan's Agriculture Ministry, could be H5N1 strain.

Masayuki Kunii, senior vice minister at the Ministry, on Friday Said, "It's not confirmed at this point if it's the highly virulent influenza, but the chances remain very high."

If the results of tests for H5N1 confirm that the 750 chickens died due to H5N1, then this would be Japan’s first outbreak since 2004. Results may be announced as early as Saturday, ministry officials said.

Though, results of a simple preliminary test for the virus were positive, the ministry said it might take several days to determine the exact strain of the virus.

The ministry has placed the farm under quarantine, and prohibited any items from leaving a 10-km radius from the site of the suspected outbreak.

If the bird flu outbreak is confirmed at the farm, the ministry would order to cull all of the more than 12,000 birds.