imu gets licence attention, page-2

Sunday, May 13, 2007. 4:00pm (AEST)
Bird flu feared in Indonesian death
An Indonesian woman who tested positive in preliminary tests for human bird flu has died.

The latest death, if confirmed, would push the country's death toll from the disease to 76, the world's highest.

The 26-year-old woman was four months' pregnant with her second child.

She died at a hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, early today.

It is not immediately clear whether she had been in close contact with infected poultry, the main channel of human bird flu infections in Indonesia.

She began to show symptoms of bird flu infection eleven days ago and was treated first at home, then moved to two different hospitals before she died.

The World Health Organisation says the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected at least 282 people and killed around 170 of them, mostly in south-east Asia, since the end of 2003.

Scientists worry the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

- AFP