Bird Flu Spreads To Indonesia

[george]

BIRD FLU SPREADS TO INDONESIA

JAKARTA: -- Jakarta has confirmed that Indonesia is suffering from the same strain of bird flu that has left 12 people dead in Thailand and Vietnam.

"The results of the identification... show that the subtype of the type A avian influenza in Indonesia is H5N1," said the agriculture ministry's director for animal health, Tri Satya Naipospos.

She said that so far no Indonesians were known to have been infected by the virus, which has killed millions of birds in the country.

Indonesia says millions of birds across much of its vast archipelago have been infected. But the country was among the last in the region to order a cull to stop the spread of the disease, which has hit 10 countries.

It admitted the presence of the disease only on January 25, months after birds began dying.

The H5N1 strain has emerged in eight countries including Indonesia while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains.

The World Health Organisation has warned that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain could kill millions across the globe if it combines with a human influenza virus to create a new virus transmissible among humans.

-- World News 2004-02-03