Dead housemaid tests positive for bird flu

Nation News - Thursday, January 29, 2009

Indra Harsaputra, THE JAKARTA POST, SURABAYA

A housemaid who died from a lung infection at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya over the weekend was infected with Avian flu, the hospital revealed Wednesday.

Chairman of the Press Forum at state-run hospital Urip Murtedjo said Sunday that a blood sample taken before the victim's death and sent to the Health Ministry had tested positive for Avian Flu.

The victim, identified only as S, and who is believed to have worked as a housemaid for a family in the city, was transferred from to the hosptical from a private hospital last Friday after suspicions were raised that she was suffering from the fatal disease.

"Initially, we did not know but remained suspicious of the patient's symptoms. After her death, the hospital's medical team sent a sample of her blood to the Health Ministry and the laboratory test result [confirmed] she was infected with the H5N1 virus," he told The Jakarta Post.

Urip said the hospital's medical team had doubted she was infected with the disease after learning the patient was not exposed to poultry at her work place or in her home village in Lumajang.

"This case has received a serious level of attention from the medical team because it is a new phenomenon," Urip said.

Chairul Anwar Nidom, a bird flu specialist at Airlangga University in Surabaya, said it would be foolish to rule out the possibility of an endemic in the city, citing recent outbreaks in Jakarta, West Java, North Sumatra and Banten.

A housemaid who died from a lung infection at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya over the weekend was infected with Avian flu, the hospital revealed Wednesday.

Chairman of the Press Forum at state-run hospital Urip Murtedjo said Sunday that a blood sample taken before the victim's death and sent to the Health Ministry had tested positive for Avian Flu.

The victim, identified only as S, and who is believed to have worked as a housemaid for a family in the city, was transferred from to the hosptical from a private hospital last Friday after suspicions were raised that she was suffering from the fatal disease.

"Initially, we did not know but remained suspicious of the patient's symptoms. After her death, the hospital's medical team sent a sample of her blood to the Health Ministry and the laboratory test result [confirmed] she was infected with the H5N1 virus," he told The Jakarta Post.

Urip said the hospital's medical team had doubted she was infected with the disease after learning the patient was not exposed to poultry at her work place or in her home village in Lumajang.