Bird Flu Center

A 14-year old girl from Indonesia who died some two months ago was found to had been infected with the bird flu virus. The discovery comes so late after the girl’s death because she was tested as part of a routine check on several patients that presented influenza symptoms. The girl lives in a province 1,400 km northeast of Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta, a region where chickens were also found dead after apparently becoming infected with the bird flu virus. One ministry official declared that two independent laboratories have confirmed the case, which is the country’s 47th, a death toll that is the highest in the world. The country’s refusal to conduct mass culling of birds in infected areas has been highly criticized, as now most of Indonesia’s 33 provinces have bird flu outbreaks. However, a plan of great proportion is under way now, as 300 million poultry are set to be vaccinated against the disease by the month of December. A nationwide campaign that aims to educate the general public was also launched last week. Avian influenza so far remains mainly an animal disease, but further mutations of the virus could cause it to be easily transmitted among humans and therefore cause a pandemic.