First Bird Flu Death Confirmed in Bali

As if Bali hadn’t already had enough to deal with in recent years, the resort island has now had its first confirmed fatality due to avian influenza.  This sends a warning to Australia that the problem could be within our shores in the near future.  Here is the following article from AFP.

Monday Aug 13 16:27 AEST

Indonesia confirmed its first human bird flu death on the resort island of Bali today, bringing the nation's overall toll to 82 and raising fears of an impact on tourism.

A 29-year-old woman who died in a hospital in Bali's capital Denpasar on Sunday was carrying the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, said Bayu Krisnamurti, head of Indonesia's national bird flu commission, in Jakarta.

"Both are positive, (tests) from the Eikman Institute and the health ministry's lab," he told a press briefing. In Indonesia, two tests must be returned positive before a human infection is confirmed.

The woman's five-year-old daughter died on August 3 but samples were not taken from her, while a two-year-old neighbour was admitted to hospital on Sunday and is suspected of being infected, Krisnamurti said.

Ningrum, a doctor from the Bird Flu Information Centre, said that the five-year-old "was diagnosed as suffering from pneumonia, and chickens which died at the house were positively infected with bird flu. "From the symptoms and the dead birds, we can assume that the child also had bird flu," she told AFP.

The mother and daughter were from the northwest of the island, far from major tourist centres, but the death may be another blow to tourism in Bali, which is recovering following deadly Islamic militant bombings in 2002 and 2005. "We'll do intensive monitoring. The central government will help the Balinese government get Bali free of bird flu," Krisnamurti vowed, adding that culling of poultry had already taken place in July in the affected area.

The virus is typically transmitted to people via infected birds. "We will do the most intensive measures in Bali as it is a tourism and international destination," Krisnamurti added.  Worldwide the H5N1 virus has killed 192 people out of 319 infected patients since reappearing in late 2003, according to a World Health Organisation toll dated July 25.

The virus is regarded as a global threat because scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily spread among humans, leading to a pandemic with the potential to kill millions. Avian influenza was found in poultry on Bali more than a year ago, leading to the culling of hundreds of birds.

H5N1 is endemic across nearly all of Indonesia, which has recorded the highest number of bird flu deaths in the world since reporting its first case in July 2005.

Krisnamurti said officials from the UN's World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture Organisation as well as national health and agriculture ministries were at the village, Dauh Tukad Aya.

Gusti Lanang Rudiartha, head of Sanglah general hospital where the victim died, said she had been transferred from a local hospital after suffering a seven-day fever. "When she was sent here she already had difficulties breathing... Her condition was already serious," he told reporters. Siadi Purniti, who is treating the two-year-old, said her condition had improved.

"There are no signs that it will worsen again. We are keeping her closely supervised," he said