Three new Indonesian H5N1 deaths include two siblings
Lisa Schnirring 
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Oct 10, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – Three Indonesian children have
recently died from H5N1 avian influenza infections, including two siblings from
the island of Bali, according to reports today from the media and the World
Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO confirmed one of the deaths today, and its verification of
the two from Bali would push Indonesia's H5N1 total to 181 cases, including 149
fatalities. The country has the most WHO-confirmed H5N1 cases and deaths in the
world.
The first case involves a 1-year-old girl from the West Jakarta
district of DKI Jakarta province, who died on Aug 25, the WHO said in a
statement today. She got sick and was treated at a healthcare facility on Aug 8
then admitted to a private hospital on Aug 15.
An investigation into the source of her infection found that one
of the girl's family members is a caterer who routinely processes poultry,
including slaughtering, according to the WHO statement. Poultry was kept in the
girl's neighborhood, but no chicken deaths had been reported within the 14 days
before her illness.
Meanwhile, a hospital in Bali said yesterday that two children, a
10-year-old boy and his 5-year-old sister, died yesterday after a 2-day
hospitalization, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported today.
The two children were admitted to Sanglah General Hospital in
Denpasar on Oct 7 with H5N1 symptoms and placed in isolation, according to a
Jakarta Globe story today. Though tests at the hospital were positive for
the H5N1 virus, further tests are being conducted at Udayana University and at
Indonesia's health ministry.
An official from the hospital said the children had direct contact
with dead poultry in their home and had been treated at a local clinic before
they were hospitalized, according to the Globe report.
Puto Sumantra, who heads Bali's animal health agency, told the
paper that a team dispatched to investigate the poultry deaths found no sign of
the virus on preliminary tests, though some of the carcasses have been sent for
further lab tests. He added that the area has been disinfected and that samples
have been taken from the childrens' family members.
The infections and deaths are Indonesia's first since early June
and the first to strike the resort island of Bali since 2007. In August 2007,
the WHO reported that the virus killed two women, ages 28 and 29. The younger
woman was a poultry trader.
The virus was suspected in the death of the other woman's
5-year-old daughter, who had died about 2 weeks earlier.
WHO confirmation of the two infections and deaths of the Bali
children would raise the global H5N1 total to 568 cases, including 334 deaths.
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