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WHO confirms Indonesia flu death

A woman cleans chickens to be sold at a market in Jakarta yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

A 35-year-old man who died last month has been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) tests as Indonesia's ninth bird flu victim, the country's health minister said yesterday.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has now confirmed 14 infections in total, with more than a dozen further suspected deaths caused by the H5N1 virus, which an overstretched health system is struggling to monitor.

"The WHO has confirmed the results. We have now nine confirmed bird flu deaths," Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters.

She said that the latest casualty, confirmed by tests at the WHO testing laboratory in Hong Kong, was a man who died at the private Pantai Indah Kapuk hospital in North Jakarta on Nov. 19.

The latest victim was identified only by his initials, AW, and came from a residential area in West Jakarta, where many of those infected so far have hailed from.

He had been scheduled to transfer to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital in North Jakarta, the main center in Indonesia for bird flu treatment, but his critical condition had prevented it, local press reports said.

Meanwhile, Sulianti Saroso Hospital hospital spokesman Ilham Patu told reporters that five new suspected bird flu patients were admitted overnight Monday and yesterday from several areas of Jakarta.

"We have now a total of six patients being treated for suspected bird flu infections," Patu said.

He said some of the five admitted were in a worse condition than the sixth patient, a 23-year-old woman who has been under treatment in an intensive care unit at the hospital for the past few days.

Health authorities here test suspected cases locally before sending positive results to Hong Kong for verification.
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