Bird Flu Center

A 16 year old Indonesian teenager has been found to be infected with the deadly bird flu virus, as results from a local laboratory have proven. The young man resides in Bekasi, on the outskirts of the capital city Jakarta and is being treated in a special bird flu center in the Sulianti Saroso Hospital. Apparently the patient had been in contact with diseased chickens, this being the most common mode of transmission of the virus, which is endemic in poultry in nearly all of the country’s provinces. However, local tests on samples taken from the patient are not thought to be definitive, and further results from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are awaited to confirm the diagnostic. Indonesia has recently equalled Vietnam’s bird flu death toll, although Vietnam has not recorded any new cases this year, following an aggressive culling campaign in infected areas.