64th Person Dies Of Bird Flu In Indonesia

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Article Date: 11 Feb 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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A 20-year-old woman is the 64th person in Indonesia to die of H5N1 bird flu infection, say Indonesian authorities. The woman, from Garut, West Java, had been in direct physical contact with sick chickens. She died on Sunday, one day after being diagnosed with the H5N1 bird flu virus strain.

Authorities have reported that two of the woman's neighbors also have bird flu like symptoms.

Of the 84 humans who have become infected with bird flu in Indonesia, 64 have died - 76%.

Scientists fear the H5N1 bird flu virus strain will probably mutate and eventually become easily human transmissible. One of the ways it could do this would be to infect a person who is sick with the normal human flu virus. The bird flu virus would have the opportunity to exchange genetic information with the human flu virus and acquire its ability to spread easily from human-to-human.

For the moment it is still very difficult for humans to catch bird flu from birds, it is even harder for a human to infect another human.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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