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Bird Flu Claims Two Lives On Bali

 

 

 

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Roughly 48 hours ago (Oct 8th) Gert van der Hoek (aka Dutchy)  on FluTrackers posted an Indonesian MetroTV report on two children hospitalized on Friday (Oct 7th) with severe respiratory symptoms on the resort island of Bali.

 

Given their reported contact with chickens, and the endemic nature of the H5N1 virus in Indonesia, bird flu was immediately suspected.

 

Over the next two days the newshounds on FluTrackers and the Flu Wiki posted more than 2 dozen translated reports on these two children, and yesterday we learned that preliminary testing indicated bird flu, and that both children were on respirators.

 

You can follow the FluTrackers Thread and the FluWiki thread for more details.

 

This morning we’ve word that both children have died, and that H5N1 has been confirmed.  While a number of news reports are reporting these deaths, TEMPO Interaktif seems to have the most details.

 

Two Boy Dies Due to Bird Flu

Monday, October 10, 2011 | 13:36 pm

TEMPO Interactive, Denpasar - Wayan Aldiawan, 10 years, and Nengah Ani Rica, 5 years, from Tembuku Village, Bangli, Bali, allegedly died from bird flu, early Monday, October 10, 2011. The bodies of the brothers are still stored at the General Hospital Center for Sanglah.

 

Bali’s Chief Medical Officer Suteja said it fielded a team into the field.  "There is a history of contact with dead chickens," he said. As already showing symptoms of decline in health condition, the family did not immediately took him to the hospital and instead hide."This is what makes the condition worse," he said.

 

A somewhat confusing, chickens that died at home the boys were brothers after testing negative results. Therefore, it asked residents to increase their vigilance to immediately report the dead chickens unreasonably

(Continue . . .)

 

According to other reports (here & here) prophylactic Tamiflu is being provided to family members and close contacts to these boys, and the community has been told that Tamiflu would be provided to anyone who had contact with sick or dead chickens.

 

All of this is highly reminiscent of the events of August 2007, when an outbreak of H5N1 killed two women (and was suspected in the death of one’s 5 year-old daughter) on the island of Bali (see WHO reports  here and here)

 

Bali, with a population of just under 4 million, is a popular international tourist destination, although its reputation has suffered in recent years due to outbreaks of bird flu, dengue, and rabies.

 

A number of countries, including the US and Australia, have issued travel health warnings for Bali, and for the rest of Indonesia  (see Here).

 

Although news reports of bird flu outbreaks, and human cases, in Indonesia have declined over the past couple of years the virus remains endemic in that country, and continues to mutate and spread.

 

Reporting and surveillance in Indonesia – as it is in much of the world – leaves much to be desired.  So while Indonesia reports 146 total deaths from the H5N1 virus, the actual number is unknown.

 

With these two new deaths, a good deal of attention will be focused on Bali over the next couple of days to see if additional cases show up.

Related Post:

Bird Flu
H5N1
Indonesia

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