According to an Indonesian health ministry official, a 7-year-old Indonesian girl who died last week has tested positive for bird flu in local tests; the results have yet to be confirmed by a World Health Organisation-accredited laboratory in Hong Kong.
The girl from Pamulang, Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta had been hospitalized for two days at Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta for high fever and breathing difficulties before ministry employees took blood samples for testing.
She was later transferred to Sulianti Saroso Hospital for infectious diseases which is the designated bird flu centre in Jakarta.
The girl and her nine-year-old brother were brought to the hospital by their parents suffering from the same symptoms.
The boy died in the intensive care unit only an hour after being admitted, but was buried before the ministry could run blood tests.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari says the death of the two children could indicate the development of a new bird flu cluster.
The family live near a poultry slaughterhouse and have apparently reported that a number of chickens near their house died before the children became sick.
The children's parents and their two siblings are reportedly taking Tamiflu after suffering similar flu-like symptoms, but have refused to be admitted to a hospital.
Indonesia has seen a steady rise in its number of human infections and deaths since its first known of outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in late 2003.
To date the virus has infected 48 Indonesians killing 36 of them.
Although bird flu remains essentially an animal disease the growing number of human deaths has created a high alert in many countries around the world who fear the virus may mutate into one that could pass easily among people and trigger a pandemic, killing millions.