Bird flu death toll in Indonesia now up to 48

According to the Ministry of Health in Indonesia a new case of the H5N1 avian influenza virus has been confirmed in a young girl.

The 14-year-old from Makassar, in South Sulawesi Province developed symptoms on 18 June, and was hospitalized on 23rd of June and died the following day.

The girl had been in contact with poultry near her home and her case was apparently detected through the Ministry’s routine influenza surveillance system.

The World Health Organisation has also updated it's human death toll in Indonesia to 48 with the addition of two cases dating back to June and November of 2005.

The inclusion of these two cases now aligns figures given for Indonesia in the WHO cumulative table of laboratory-confirmed cases with those officially issued by the Ministry of Health.

The first retrospective case was an 8-year-old female from Tangerang in Banten Province on the outskirts of Jakarta, who developed symptoms on 24 June 2005 and died on 14 July 2005.

The girl was part of a family cluster reported to WHO in July 2005.

The second retrospective case is a 45-year-old male from Magelang, Central Java Province who developed symptoms on 25 November 2005 following direct contact with diseased poultry and subsequently recovered.

The retrospectively confirmed cases bring the total in Indonesia to 63, of these cases, 48 have been fatal.

Indonesia is struggling to cope with the continuing outbreaks of the H5N1 virus and has to date the world's highest human toll from the disease.