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June 3, 2006
A 25-year old nurse has been admitted to an Indonesian hospital with symptoms of bird flu. Authorities said the nurse worked regularly at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital, which has been treating a number of bird flu patients.
The ailing nurse has had no contact with poultry but she had treated two siblings, ages 7 and 10, who died of bird flu recently, China's People's Daily reported. The children lived in an area with a large bird population.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said it had found no evidence that the avian flu virus had been transmitted between humans in the recent family cluster of cases in Indonesia's North Sumatra. At least six family members died of a flu-like disease.
If tests confirm the ailing nurse is suffering from bird flu, it could become the first confirmed case of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
The hospital was planning to send the patient's blood sample to the laboratory of the Health Development and Research Body in Jakarta. The nurse was identified only by her initials, "CI."
The H5N1 virus has caused 127 deaths in 224 cases worldwide since it was detected in humans in late 2003. In all but a handful of cases, humans have become infected through direct contact with ailing birds, their feces or blood.
Indonesian officials say a mass poultry slaughter will begin soon in the North Sumatra village of Kubu Simbelang, where the infected family members lived.
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