An Indonesian toddler died of bird flu, bringing the country's H5N1 death toll to 21, an official said yesterday, citing test results from a WHO-approved laboratory in the US.
The three-year-old boy died in a hospital in Semarang, Central Java province, on Feb. 28, apparently after coming into contact with infected chickens, said Hariadi Wibisono, a senior health ministry official.
An investigation was being carried out to confirm the source of infection.
PHOTO: AP
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 96 people, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to WHO.
Though health experts say the virus remains difficult for humans to catch, they fear it could mutate and set off a flu pandemic.
While Vietnam's caseload has sharply tapered off in the last two years -- thanks to an aggressive government campaign -- Indonesia's is steadily rising with all 21 human fatalities there occurring in the past nine months.
Indonesia's health and agriculture ministries have come under fire for doing too little to stamp out the virus when it first appeared in poultry stocks in 2003, allowing it to spread to 26 of the country's 33 provinces.
The government has relied largely on vaccinations of poultry, saying it cannot afford the internationally recommended policy of culling all chicken and ducks in bird flu-infected areas.
It occasionally carries out selective slaughters, but those efforts are seen largely as made-for-television public relations campaigns.
A local laboratory had already confirmed the death of the three-year-old boy, whose name was not released, but the WHO waits for more reliable test results from Hong Kong or Atlanta, Georgia, before raising its toll.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS