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Indonesia: Bird Flu Fatality & Suspect Cases

 

 


# 6160

 

Overnight Indonesia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) announced their 3rd H5N1 fatality of 2012: A 19 year old maid from Tangerang who developed symptoms on February 8th, and died on the 13th.

 

Tangerang is a major population center located just 25 km west of the Capital City, Jakarta.

 

image

 

The epidemiological investigation investing the route of her infection has stated that her risk factors were unclear, suggesting this woman had no known direct contact with poultry.

 

Of note, the  greater Jakarta area has been a bit of a bird flu hotspot these past couple of months.

 

The two other confirmed fatalities this year out of Indonesia (both from January) occurred in nearby Jakarta, while another suspected (but never confirmed) bird flu death was reported in Tangerang on January 21st. 

 

Here is the translation of the statement from the MOH.

 

Update Reports Bird Flu Case

February 21, 2012 | 9:47 am

Ministry of Health through the Directorate General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, announced a new case of H5N1 have been confirmed by the Center for Basic Biomedical and Health Technology, Balitbangkes.

 

Case on behalf of Kh (female, 19 years)who Kebumen, working as maids in Tangerang South, Banten province. On February 8, 2012 symptoms of fever, February 9, went to the doctor in private clinics, and on February 12, 2012 were treated at Mercy Hospital Sari Karawaci Tangerang. Kh died on February 13, 2012.

 

Epidemiological investigations have been conducted in the home environment where employers and patients in Tangerang Integrated Team Ministry of Health and local Health Department with the results of risk factors is unclear.

 

With the increase of these cases, the cumulative number of bird flu in Indonesia since 2005 until this news was broadcast on 185 cases with 153 deaths.

 

Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Prof. dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama as the focal point of the International Health Regulations (IHR) has been informed about the case to the WHO.

 

This information is published by the Center for Public Communication, Secretariat General of the Ministry of Health. For further information please contact via telephone: 021-52907416-9, fax: 021-52921669, 52960661, P

 

 

Meanwhile, the newshounds on the flu forums have been following reports of a family of 4 or 5 from South Sulawesi (another recent hub of bird flu reports), that are hospitalized with suspected H5N1.

 

I see Crof has picked up an English language media report overnight (see Indonesia: Four suspected H5N1 cases in South Sulawesi) via VIVAnews: Four Residents Feared Bird Flu Suspects.

 

Editor, senior moderator, and master map/chart maker Laidback Al on FluTrackers  has plotted this latest suspect cluster, along with two other suspected clusters this year on Sulawesi which you can view HERE.

 

Since January 1, 2012 there have been media reports of two clusters of suspected H5N1 infections in Gowa Regency in South Sulawesi in Indonesia.


January: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179571


February: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182747

The map below depicts the general location of these two clusters.

image

 

 

Although one is certainly tempted to suggest that where there is smoke, there is fire, so far none of these `clusters’  has been officially recognized as due to bird flu.

 

Given the limits of surveillance and testing, it is certainly possible that some individual cases, or even small clusters, of H5N1 infection go undetected.

 

But for now the virus remains poorly adapted to humans, and does not appear to transmit easily between them. Human infections remain rare, isolated events.

 

Clusters, while they have been reported, are rarer still.

With 20+ different clades (major versions) of the virus in circulation around the world, the concern is that one of these days one of them will mutate into a form that can transmit well among humans.

 

So we watch reports of clusters like these with interest, looking for any sign that the virus is changing.

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H5N1
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