Indonesia Announces Two Bird Flu Deaths; Japan Confirms Outbreak | Voice of America - English
An Indonesian health official announced Saturday the recent deaths of two women from Avian influenza. Two other people died earlier in the week. Meanwhile, Japan confirmed bird flu affected chickens on a farm in the south of the country.
Health officials in Indonesia say two more people have died from bird flu there this week, raising the country's total number of deaths to at least 61. Both women had received treatment in the same hospital in Indonesia's capital of Jakarta. Earlier in the week, a 37-year-old woman and teenage boy died from bird flu. Although three of this week's victims were from the same village, Indonesia's Ministry of Health has said none of them were known to have had contact with each other. Jakarta hospital spokesman Mukhtar Ikhsan says they are also treating the son of the 37-year-old woman for the virus. He says, "This is a confirmed bird flu infection, and at the moment his condition is deteriorating." Meanwhile, Japanese officials confirmed Saturday that bird flu caused the deaths of more than two-thousand chickens at a farm 900 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. The officials have not determined whether this particular strain of bird flu is the feared H5N1 or another less deadly form. However, they announced the culling of the remaining 10,000 birds at the farm as a precaution against the virus spreading. Currently, bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch. But international experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans.