Two Indonesian children have died from bird flu, taking the
confirmed death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 107, a health
ministry official said on Monday.
One of the victims was a 15-year-old boy from Subang, in
“There were dead chickens in the boy’s neighboring, but in
the girl’s case it is still unclear,” said Nyoman Kandun, director general of
communicable disease control at the ministry, according to Reuters.
The source of the infections was being investigated, but
contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting the H5N1 virus,
health officials say.
Meanwhile, a 22-month girl from
“Her condition is improving, and she is being treated at a
Including the latest two deaths,
Health experts fear that the virus, which is usually spread
through human-bird contact, could mutate into a form easily passed from human
to human and millions of people could die because they would have no immunity
to the new strain. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with
infected birds.
Health experts fear that