The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed another human fatality from bird flu in Indonesia, raising the country’s death toll to 48.
The WHO says the latest case involves an eight-year old girl from the outskirts of Jakarta, who died in July last year. In a statement released Saturday, the organization says it re-examined the dead girl’s blood samples after revising its rules for confirming bird flu cases.
The girl’s 38-year-old father also died of bird flu in July 2005. The man was Indonesia’s first confirmed human case of the virus.
The WHO is also confirming that a 45-year-old Indonesian man from central Java contracted bird flu in November last year, before recovering.
Both of the newly-confirmed bird flu cases have already been reported by the Indonesian Health Ministry.
Indonesia has recorded the highest number of bird flu deaths since a regional outbreak began in 2003.
– VOA News
