Indonesia confirms 101st bird flu death

As expected, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has deepened its roots in Indonesia, the hardest hit by the virus, by taking the 101st human life in the country.

A 32-year-old Indonesian man who had tested positive for bird flu succumbed to the H5N1 strain of the disease Tuesday, bringing the country's death toll from bird flu to 101, almost half of the world's recorded bird flu fatalities.

The man, who came from the nearby industrial city of Tangerang west of Jakarta, died Tuesday after being treated for three days at Persahabatan Hospital in east Jakarta, the hardest hit by bird flu with 25 deaths and 29 reported cases.

The man, identified as N, was moved to the bird flu referral hospital in Jakarta on January 26 with high fever, breathing difficulties, low blood cell count and pneumonia.

According to Joko Suyono of the National Bird Flu Centre, three people have died over the past three days from bird flu. Before the latest victim, a nine-year-old boy and a 23-year old woman had died from the disease over the weekend, Suyono said.

Initially, the authorities suspected that the latest Indonesian victim, the seventh confirmed death from bird flu this year, had contracted the virus from pet doves kept in his neighbourhood, but later it was determined after tests that the birds and other fowl in the neighbourhood were H5N1-free.

Consequently, it was not immediately clear how the man contracted the virus.

Indonesia is criticized by the anti bird flu agencies for showing less efforts to check the H5N1 when it first appeared in poultry stocks and among backyard chickens in 2004.

Most human infections have occurred after contact with birds infected with H5N1 virus, which according to the Geneva-based WHO is generally not harmful to humans, but scientists now fear the deadly H5N1 strain could mutate and become easily transmissible among people, leaving millions more to die and triggering a devastating human pandemic.

H5N1, also known as A(H5N1), is a subtype of the Influenza A virus that is capable of causing illness in many animal species, including humans, while a bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1", is the causative agent of H5N1 flu, commonly known as "avian influenza" or simply "bird flu", and is endemic in many bird populations, especially in Southeast Asia.

According to the WHO data, the strain of bird flu virus has so far infected 353 people and killed 221 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia. The virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003.

As of Wednesday, the lethal H5N1 virus has so far engulfed 101 human lives out of 124 infected people in Indonesia.