Nurse H5N1 positive?

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung

Laboratory tests conducted by the Health Ministry confirmed Friday that a seven-year-old girl who died late Thursday night in Jakarta contracted avian influenza.

In Bandung, a nurse who treated confirmed bird flu patients has been quarantined after showing symptoms of the disease. If she is confirmed for H5N1, it would raise the worrisome possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The girl from Pamulang, Tangerang, had been hospitalized for two days at Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta for high fever and breathing difficulties before ministry employees took blood samples for testing. She was later transferred to Sulianti Saroso Hospital for infectious diseases.

"The girl's parents brought her in together with her brother, who also was suffering from the same symptoms," a staff member at Fatmawati Hospital, Sumiati, said.

The nine-year-old boy died in the intensive care unit only an hour after being admitted, but was buried before the ministry could run blood tests.

The death of the two children could indicate the development of a new bird flu cluster, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Friday.

"The local test from the victim in Pamulang is bird flu positive. The symptoms of the virus are very similar to previous clusters we've had. The parents are also suffering from flu, and we are giving them a full dose of Tamiflu now," Siti said.

The family lived near a poultry slaughterhouse. after a week of caring for two siblings who were confirmed to have died of bird flu.

The 25-year-old woman from Ujungberung Hospital in Bandung was put in isolation at Bandung's Hasan Sadikin Hospital on Thursday night. The siblings, a girl aged 10 and 18-year-old male, are considered the third bird flu cluster in the province.

"After considering her contact with dead bird flu victims, we declared her a suspected bird flu case. But she is still fully conscious, her breathing problems are not too serious and she's not experiencing chest pain," the chief of the Bird Flu Management team at Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Hadi Yusuf, told The Jakarta Post.

He said she was put in isolation according to instructions from Health Ministry officials, and that her blood samples had been sent to Jakarta for testing.

The head of West Java's Environmental Health Office subdivision, Fatimah Resmiati, said a positive test for the virus would raise the possibility of the first human-to-human transmission. Almost all deaths in Indonesia have been traced to infected poultry.

Health Ministry data puts the number of bird flu deaths at 37 of the 50 confirmed cases since last July. At least 26 of the deaths occurred this year.

Siti said the government would cull poultry in and around the area where the bird flu victims had lived, and reminded the public to minimize contact with poultry.

"And please observe the people around you, particularly those who have contact with poultry so that early treatment can be implemented," she said.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Sari P. Setiogi said her office had not been informed of the suspected infection of the nurse in Bandung.

The nine-year-old boy died in the intensive care unit only an hour after being admitted, but was buried before the ministry could run blood tests.

This continues to escape me. If they have the person, take the blood before the body is moved. 

I think in the US and other countries like the UK, Australia etc, people have become so used to the government taking care of them, that they just cannot fathom something like this happening to them. Even now, I myself, with knowing what I know about this virus, can scarcely believe we could have a pandemic that could take the lives of so many.