Indonesia: the ability of avian flu to spread from person to person

The World Health Organization on November 29 said the 16-year-old was confirmed as the 12th bird flu case in Indonesia, with two brothers dying with similar symptoms a few days before he entered. institute. This further raised fears that the H5N1 virus could spread from person to person.

The two brothers of the teenager, a 20-year-old and a 6-year-old, died on November 11 after being diagnosed with typhoid. They have not been tested for bird flu, and the cause of death is still a big question mark, spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) Maria Chang said.

'These two boys have symptoms similar to fever and have respiratory problems, but we do not have their samples. We almost did not identify the cause of their death, ' Chang said, adding that it is not ruled out that bird flu spreads from person to person.

Chang said that before the deaths of these two boys, the chickens raised in their families died of disease. Particularly 16-year-old boy identified positive for avian influenza is currently in quite stable condition. According to Chang, a group of WHO experts and the Indonesian Ministry of Health went to the village where the teenager lived to investigate the case. The survey team visited each of the 80 households in this area and there were no signs of disease spreading to the community.

Indonesia has officially confirmed that 7 people died from bird flu among 12 people infected with this deadly disease. According to WHO, since 2003 up to now, the number of deaths from bird flu in 5 Asian countries is 68, including Vietnam: 42, Thailand: 13, Indonesia: 7, Cambodia: 4 and China: 2.

T.VY (According to Reuters, Xinhua)