Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 8-Aug-2008 00:13 hrs
A couple tend to their child who is suspected to be infected with bird flu at a hospital in Medan on August 6, 2008. Indonesia has rushed a team of specialists to a village in Sumatra to confirm a suspected outbreak of bird flu which has affected at least 13 people, a health official said Thursday.
Indonesia has rushed a team of specialists to a village in Sumatra to confirm a suspected outbreak of bird flu which has affected at least 13 people, a health official said Thursday.
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"We suspect an outbreak of bird flu judging by the number of people who have fallen ill with bird flu symptoms," North Sumatra provincial health office chief Chandra Syafei told AFP.
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"We are now waiting for the results of blood samples we sent to Jakarta."
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The official could not confirm that three people had died from bird flu-like symptoms after the suspected outbreak hit Air Batu village last week.
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A nurse at a local hospital that was treating some of the 13 people feared to have contracted the deadly virus told AFP on Wednesday that three people had already died.
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Residents of the village became ill with fevers and respiratory problems after a large number of chickens died suddenly with what appeared to be symptoms of avian influenza, officials said.
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Syafei said a team of five epidemiologists had been sent to the stricken area to investigate the possible outbreak and distribute antiviral flu medicine Tamiflu.
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"They are working together with local officials and the local husbandry office to prevent any eventuality," he said, adding however that the area had not been quarantined.
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Health ministry officials in Jakarta have not been available not comment on the suspected outbreak.
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The ministry announced earlier this week that the human toll from avian influenza in Indonesia had risen to 112 with the recent death of a 19-year-old man from Java island.
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The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
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Indonesia is the country worst-hit by the virus, which typically spreads from bird to human through direct contact.
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Experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans and kill millions in a global pandemic. — AFP
