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.
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.
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