Indonesia Reports 100th Bird Flu Death
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, has recorded its 100th human death as the virus picks up speed across Asia.
Health officials are bracing for more possible outbreaks during the upcoming Lunar New Year, when massive numbers of people and poultry are on the move.
In Indonesia, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a 9-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman from the outskirts of Jakarta, said Joko Suyono of the National Bird Flu Center.
The boy fell ill Jan. 16 and died Sunday in Jakarta after testing positive, Suyono said. The woman developed symptoms Jan. 19 and died in a hospital.
Two other Indonesians in their 30s, who also tested positive, were being treated in the capital, Suyono said.
Indonesia has recorded nearly half of the 222 human deaths from bird flu detected worldwide since the virus began decimating poultry stocks in late 2003.
Bird flu typically flares during the winter months, and a number of countries have recently reported fresh outbreaks in poultry.
India has recorded its worst-ever outbreak, and officials are scrambling to slaughter birds to try to stop the virus from spreading into Calcutta, where 14 million people live.
More than 1.6 million birds have been slaughtered since mid-January, state Animal Husbandry Minister Anisur Rahman said Sunday.
On Sunday, skittish officials in neighboring Bangladesh ordered the halt of all egg and poultry imports from India.
China lifted a bird flu quarantine in Xinjiang province on Sunday after 35,000 birds were slaughtered following a December outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Health officials in China and Vietnam have urged more strict controls to keep the virus from spreading during the upcoming Lunar New Year festivities.
Bird flu remains hard for humans to catch, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds.
Associated Press writers Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Manik Banerjee in Calcutta, India, contributed to this report.
El domingo, una mujer de 23 años de Yakarta y un niño de nueve años murieron en Indonesia, elevando la cuenta de muertes causadas por el virus de gripe aviaria H5N1 en ese país a 100.

Joko Suyono, un representante de prensa del Centro de Información sobre gripe aviar de Indonesia, dijo el lunes: "''La mujer murió ayer, pero ahora es que recibimos los resultados de que dio positiva de gripe aviaria. El total de muertes es ahora 100 de los 124 casos positivos''".

Según se reportó, la mujer vivía cerca de un matadero de aves de corral, el cual se cree podría ser la fuente de infección.

Alrededor de la mitad de todas las muertes por gripe aviaria han ocurrido en Indonesia. En total, 223 han muerto de este virus alrededor del mundo.