The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced a new case of human infection of H5N1 avian influenza. A 17-year-old female from Tangerang District, in Banten Province developed symptoms on 9 August , was hospitalized on 13 August and died in hospital on 14 August.
Her source of exposure is currently under investigation.
Of the 104 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia, 83 have been fatal.
With the flu spreading around the world, the virus has turned up in birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. So far, bird flu has mostly been passed from birds either to other birds or, in isolated cases, to humans.
In June 2006, WHO reported the first case of human transference of the disease, when an Indonesian man died after catching the flu from his 10-year-old son. If the flu mutates into a strain that can pass more readily from human to human, people will have no immunity and the flu will probably pass rapidly from person to person, creating a pandemic.
Flu vaccines can only be made to protect against a particular virus, and, since the virus had yet to be passed from human to human, no vaccine has been developed.