- JAKARTA (AP) -- Bird flu
is suspected in the deaths of a man and his two daughters in Indonesia
and the lack of evidence that they had contact with sickened poultry raises
concerns of possible human-to-human transmission, the Health Minister said
Friday.
-
- The victims, a 38-year-old man and his two girls, nine
and one-year-old, would be the country's first human fatalities linked
to the disease. They lived in a suburb of Jakarta and all died in the last
week and half, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.
-
- "These are suspected bird flu cases," Mr. Supari
said at a news conference attended by officials from the World Health Organization.
"We have sent specimens to Hong Kong to confirm the results, which
will take seven to 10 days."
-
- Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been culled
across Asia in the last two years because of the deadly bird flu virus,
which also jumped to humans, killing 51 people in Vietnam, Thailand and
Cambodia.
-
- Experts say that all the deaths so far have resulted
from an animal passing the virus to a human.
-
- But WHO has long cautioned that the virus could mutate
to allow easy transmission from person to person, which could cause it
to spread around the world within months.
-
- Dr. Georg Petersen, a WHO representative, said that while
the three Indonesian family members had no known contact with poultry,
a more thorough investigation could turn up evidence to the contrary.
-
- "In other countries, this is often the case,"
he said.
-
- Mr. Supari said the man's wife and their two maids have
shown no symptoms of the disease -- which include fever and respiratory
problems -- and tests have been carried out on more than 300 people who
were in contact with the family.
-
- Last month, Indonesia reported its first human case of
bird flu in a poultry worker, but the man did not develop symptoms and
is currently healthy.
-
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