Thirteen Indonesian villagers clear of bird flu

Health officials in Indonesia say 13 people from a village on Sumatra who were hospitalised with suspected bird flu, have all tested negative for the H5N1 virus.

Three people died and another thirteen, including a seven-year-old girl and an eight-month-old baby, developed a fever following the death of large numbers of chickens in Air Batu village, in Asahan, North Sumatra.

Nyoman Kandun, the health ministry's director-general of communicable disease control, says the test results were negative for all the suspected cases.

WHO experts have been helping to investigate the suspected outbreak and 400 chickens and ducks have been slaughtered as a precaution.

Whenever a suspected cluster of bird flu cases appears there is a great deal of concern and this is because of the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

This would mean that the virus could have mutated into a form that can pass easily among people, which would trigger a pandemic.

At present bird flu remains largely a disease of animals which is quite hard for humans to catch and almost all cases to date have been the result of close contact with infected birds.

However experts continue to worry that the H5N1 virus will ultimately mutate into a pandemic strain that could sweep the globe, with the potential to kill millions and decimate economies.

So far, according to the World Health Organization, at least 243 of the 385 people known to be infected with bird flu have died since late 2003.

The recent death in Indonesia of a 19-year-old man from bird flu, has brought the nation's total death toll to 111, the highest of any nation.