|
JAKARTA: A nine-year-old boy and his father have been admitted to a
hospital in Indonesia, suspected of having bird flu, a medic said
Sunday.
Both were admitted to the Dr. Muwardi general
hospital in the Central Java city of Solo on Saturday showing all
the symptoms of infection, Reviono, who heads the hospital’s bird
flu unit, told Agence France-Presse.
He said the pair had buried chickens that had
died after being infected with H5N1, while several chickens in their
neighborhood had also tested positive for the disease.
Both have been put in the hospital’s isolation
ward and blood and tissue samples will be sent to the health
ministry laboratory in Jakarta on Monday, he added.
Two positive results are needed before
Indonesian authorities confirm a human bird-flu infection.
Indonesia has the highest number of human
bird-flu casualties in the world, with 105 killed by the disease.
The father and son were referred from a hospital
in nearby Klaten district where they live, Reviono said.
Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread
directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily
transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.
Eleven people have died of bird flu in Indonesia
this year, 10 of them from Jakarta and its surrounding areas.
-- AFP
|
