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update:Jul 21, 2006
Indonesia matches Vietnam with 42nd bird flu death
Indonesia has confirmed its 42nd bird flu fatality, equalling Vietnam
as the country with the most human deaths from the virus.
Local lab tests on a 44-year-old man who died July 12 were positive for the
H5N1 strain of
avian
influenza. A World Health Organisation reference laboratory in Hong Kong
confirmed the diagnosis.
The man lived in the Jatinegara neighborhood
in an eastern part of the capital, Jakarta, where he sold fried chicken, said
Joko Suyono, an official at health ministry's avian flu center. "He was exposed
to chickens everyday,'' Suyono said.
Indonesia has reported the most
human fatalities this year as authorities struggle to control the virus in
poultry in about 80 percent of the nation's 33 provinces.
Since late
2003, H5N1 is known to have infected 230 people, killing 132 of them, the WHO
said on July 14. Vietnam hasn't reported any avian flu cases this
year.
Indonesia has allocated only 30 billion rupiah (US$3.19
million) for compensating farmers. For each destroyed chicken, a farmer gets
R10,000 (US$1.06), whereas the birds fetch R15,000 to R30,000 at
market.
The Australian government has established an A$10 million
(US$7.32 million)
compensation
scheme to assist Indonesian poultry farmers hit by bird
flu.
Editor WorldPoultry
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