81st victim in Indonesia
July 9th, 2007
The death of a young Indonesian boy marked the 81st victim in the fight against bird flu in the Asian country over the weekend. The boy was living in a city located in West Java’s Banten province and according to reports he died on Sunday in one of the biggest hospitals in the country’s capital, Jakarta.
Health officials say that the victim had displayed regular symptoms of bird flu on July 1st, being admitted in hospital four days later. Further tests confirmed the initial diagnostic, but it is yet uncertain how the boy contracted the virus initially. Indonesian authorities have been alerted by a new wave of avian flu infections and a new ban on backyard poultry farms has been placed in the case of nine provinces.