h5n1 hits indonesia Title : New bird flu outbreak hits Indonesia...

h5n1 hits indonesia Title : New bird flu outbreak hits Indonesia
Date : 04 October 2004
www.channelnewsasia.com

JAKARTA: Hundreds of chickens at a farm in Indonesia have died of a strain of bird flu that is potentially deadly to humans.

An official said lab tests showed that 350 chickens at the farm at Kranggan Harjo on the central island of Java have died of the H5N1 virus, a lethal strain, which has killed at least 30 people in Southeast Asia this year.

"The bird flu virus was of the H5N1 strain," the local head of the animal husbandry office, Gembong Murdowo, was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily.

There was no immediate confirmation from officials.

Murdowo said the carcasses of the dead chickens had been burned to prevent the virus from spreading.

At least 30 people have died of bird flu in Vietnam and Thailand since the start of a major outbreak late last year. No Indonesians are known to have been infected by the virus.

Indonesia in July launched a major vaccination programme to eradicate bird flu which was lingering in some districts.

Officials said the virus had resurfaced because some farmers had neglected procedures by using illegal vaccines and restocking their poultry too early. Thai officials last week confirmed its first probable case of human-to-human infection of bird flu following the deaths of a mother and daughter.

A variation of bird flu was blamed for the deaths of as many as 40 million people worldwide in 1918.

- AFP