Another Bird Flu Death

This makes me sad :( According to the Indonesian Health Ministry an Indonesian boy died from bird flu in the capital yesterday, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to 88.

The 12 year old junior high school student from Tangerang, on Jakarta's south western outskirts, died after being treated for 5 days at Persahabatan Hospital -- a designed bird-flu hospital in Jakarta -- said Daswir Nurdin of the ministry's bird flu center. "He was reported to have had contact with dead chickens close to his school," Nurdin said, adding that the boy 1st developed breathing problems and a fever on 30 Sep 2007 and initially visited a local clinic. The boy was brought to Persahabatan on Tuesday [9 Oct 2007], Nurdin said. "His death raised Indonesia's death toll of bird flu to 88 deaths out of 109 cases, he said.

Indonesia has been hardest hit by the virus since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. Its human death toll now accounts for almost half of the recorded 200 fatalities worldwide [actually 88 of 202 worldwide (43.6 percent) as of 14 Oct 2007 - Mod.CP], according to the World Health Organization.

-Raquel