Boy's death takes Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 53

The death toll in Indonesia from bird flu has now reached 53 with the death of an 11-year-old boy on Saturday from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

According to Indonesian health officials the total number of people infected with bird flu in the country has now reached 71 and the majority of the deaths have occurred since the beginning of the year.

Apparently the boy from south Jakarta had been in contact with infected chickens belonging to a neighbour and became ill early last the week.

He was admitted to hospital after he developed bird flu like symptoms and subsequently died.

The boy was found to have the H5N1 bird flu virus in tests at a Health Ministry laboratory which were confirmed by NAMRU, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit based in Jakarta.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populated country, and consists of a sprawling archipelago of more than 18,000 islands spread over a vast area.

As in many Asian countries backyard poultry is common and acts as both an essential source of food and income.

There has been a continued reluctance on the part of Indonesian authorities to carry out the mass culling of birds despite the escalating death toll from the virus.

This has led to wide criticism from many quarters but Indonesia cites cost and logistics as reasons for their refusal to cull, while experts continue to worry that as the bird flu spreads it will ultimately mutate into a form which will easily transfer between humans.

This would create the potential of the world facing a flu pandemic, which could kill millions.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus strain if it infected a person with a normal human flu virus could exchange genetic information with that virus and mutate and acquire the ability to spread easily from human to human.

Indonesia is now the country hardest hit by the virus.

To date, almost all the reported cases of bird flu throughout the world have been contracted by contact with diseased birds; the virus at present remains a disease, in the main, of birds and has been found among fowl in almost all of Indonesia's provinces.