Bird Flu Center

A 20 year old man living in Indonesia’s West Java province was hospitalized on Tuesday with typical bird flu symptoms and was later tested positive for the virus. It is the country’s 67 bird flu human case, with 51 deaths recorded so far, 40 of which occurred this year alone. The central laboratory in Jakarta confirmed the presence of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in samples taken from the man. More worrying is that the case might be one that signals the discovery of a cluster in the man’s family. His 23 year old brother died only days ago with similar flu symptoms, but he was not taken to hospital for testing prior to his death. Also, the two men’s sister, aged 15, was also hospitalized this week after developping high fever and cough. This indicates a possible common source of infection for all the family members, although the possibility exists that the virus had been passed on from one person to another. The man is being treated in an isolation room in the hospital, but his condition is still to improve.