Indonesian man is latest positive bird flu case

JAKARTA - A 21-year-old man from the Indonesian island of Sumatra is being treated for bird flu, the Health Ministry said yesterday, bringing the number of positive cases of the deadly virus in the country to five.

Tests at a laboratory in Hong Kong had confirmed the results, said I Nyoman Kandun, director general of disease control at the ministry.

This took the number of Indonesia's confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza to five, comprising three deaths and two people being treated, he added.

"He participated in the butchering of a sick chicken. The chicken meat was then shared with neighbours," Kandun told Reuters by telephone.

The man was being treated at a hospital in the city of Bandar Lampung along with his four-year-old nephew, who has tested positive for bird flu in Indonesia but yet to be confirmed by the Hong Kong laboratory as having the virus.

Some officials have put the number of positive cases at six. Officials have also said four or five Indonesians have died, but not all test results were sent to Hong Kong.

The World Health Organisation warned last month that bird flu was moving towards a form that could be passed between humans, and the world had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

Kandun said 22 people were under observation for bird flu-like symptoms in the world's fourth-most-populous nation but that none had shown positive results yet.

- REUTERS