From rxpgnews.com
Two more suspected bird flu deaths in Indonesia
By IANS,
Feb 12, 2006 - 5:54:37 PM
A woman and a chicken industry worker have died in Indonesia with symptoms of bird flu, officials said Saturday.
Dewi Sartika, the 27-year-old-woman, was tested positive Wednesday for avian influenza in local tests and she died late Friday night at Sulianti Saroso Hospital.
"She died last night at 22:40 after we treated her on ventilator since yesterday," Ilham Patu, spokesman for the hospital, told DPA.
Purnomo, 23, who worked transporting chicken eggs to the market in East Jakarta, went into the hospital around 7 p.m. Friday and died at 8 p.m.
"We already took his samples and sent it to the health ministry, and we are still waiting for confirmation," Patu said.
If both fatalities are confirmed by World Health Organisation (WHO) labs in Hong Kong to have been caused by H5N1, they would bring Indonesia's bird-flu death toll to 19.
Health officials say there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, which, according to WHO, has killed at least 88 people since late 2003 in seven countries.
However, experts fear it could mutate into a form that can spread easily between humans, setting off a global pandemic that might kill millions of people.
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