Another bird flu death in Indonesia pushes death toll up to 108

Indonesia's health ministry has announced that a three-year-old boy from Java has died from bird flu pushing the country's death toll up to 108.

Ministry spokeswoman, Lily Sulistyowati says the boy from Manyaran village in Central Java, became ill on on April 17th, was admitted to hospital and died on April 23rd after suffering from respiratory problems; he had been in contact with birds in his neighbourhood which had died suddenly.

The most common way of contracting the H5N1 bird flu virus, is by contact with sick birds and the virus is endemic in the bird population in most of Indonesia.

Experts say the virus has now infected poultry in 31 out of 33 provinces in Indonesia but five provinces have been free of the virus for the past six months.

The concern is that the virus might mutate into a form passed between people, resulting in a soaring transmission rate leading to a pandemic in which millions of people could die.

The World Health Organisation says since the virus resurfaced in Asia in late 2003, it has killed 240 people in a dozen countries - Indonesia has the highest death toll to date of any nation.

Influenza A (H5N1) virus - also called "H5N1 virus" - is an influenza A virus subtype that occurs mainly in birds, is highly contagious among birds, and can be deadly to them. H5N1 virus does not usually infect people, but infections with these viruses have occurred in humans. Most of these cases have resulted from people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces.

For current information about avian influenza A (H5N1) outbreaks, see the CDC Outbreaks page.