JAKARTA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A 33-year-old Indonesian man, who is being
treated at a hospital in Riau province, has been suspected of having avian
influenza, as an initial laboratory test showed he is positively having the
disease, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.
Health authorities were waiting for the second laboratory test for
confirmation that he was positive of having H5N1 virus, an official of anti-bird
flu center of the ministry Joko Suyono told Xinhua.
Should the man confirmed, he would be the 105 person infected by the
disease in Indonesia, which so far has 84 fatalities, making it the hardest-hit
country by bird flu.
The official said that the man has historical contact with chicken before
he got the germs of the disease on Aug. 25.
"He processed chicken that he bought from nearby market," said Suyono.
Three days after the man felt the germ of the disease, he was admitted in
Santa Maria hospital of Pekan Baru, the capital of the province on Aug. 28 and
then on Sept. 2 he was admitted to bird-flu designed hospital of Arifin Ahmad in
the capital.
Experts fear that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus could mutate in a
certain level that can make them transmittable among humans that can cause a
pandemic where million people can be killed.
So far, the viruses have killed globally 195 out of 322 infected people,
most of them in Indonesia with 84 fatalities and 105 cases.
Huge territory, traditional way of rising chickens on back yard and lack of
obedience of provincial administration in implementing the Jakarta decision to
stop the virus spread, are among the obstacles in fighting the bird flu in
Indonesia.
