Bird Flu :: Two women die of bird flu in Indonesia

The Indonesian health officials have confirmed about two women died after contracting bird flu, raising the country’s total number of human deaths to 61.

A 27-year-old woman from the capital, Jakarta, died in hospital on Friday evening, officials said. Another woman, aged 22, died west of Jakarta in the early hours of Saturday. Indonesia has the world’s highest human death toll from the H5N1 virus, and registered more bird flu deaths in 2006 than any other nation.

According to the World Health Organisation, the disease has claimed more than 150 lives since it began ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, and triggered the mass slaughter of millions of birds. There are fears the virus could mutate into a form that is easily passed between humans, but so far the vast majority of cases can be traced back to contact with infected birds.


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