Indo health minister admits to new cluster

Indonesia's local examination found out another bird flu cluster death in the country, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said here Friday.

Supari said that a seven year-old girl who died on Friday was positively contracted by avian influenza virus based on local laboratory test and her 10 year-old brother who died on May 29 had similar signs.

"I think it is a cluster," she told reporters.

"The caracteristic of germ (suffered by the boy) is very similar (with the girl's), and now their mother and father are suffering from flu. They are all in the Pamulang district," she said.

The minister suggested to conduct stamp-out of all livestock soon in area of one kilometer of the location.

She said currently Indonesia's local test recorded 37 out of 50 people contracted with the H5N1 virus had died.

The country was suspected to have the largest cluster of human bird flu death in the world last month when seven members from the same family died of bird flu in North Sumatra province.

As the disease expands all over the world, experts fear that the virus can mutate into a certain form that easily transmits from human to human, which will kill millions of people.

Source: Xi