Indonesian tests positive for bird flu
Infection in farm worker is nation's first human case
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A farm worker in eastern Indonesia has tested positive for bird flu, marking the country's first human case of the virus that already has killed at least 54 people elsewhere in Southeast Asia, health officials in Indonesia said yesterday.
The worker from southern Sulawesi island is healthy and currently shows no symptoms of the illness, but two tests at a Hong Kong laboratory confirmed that he had been infected by avian influenza, health officials said. The results make Indonesia the fourth country to register a human case of bird flu, which international health specialists warn could spark a global pandemic.
Since 2003, the highly lethal disease has struck chickens, quail, and other birds in 18 Indonesian provinces on seven islands, prompting the government to order a massive campaign to vaccinate poultry against the virus.
But Indonesian specialists have sought to ease public anxiety about the outbreak over the past year, saying the local virus is slightly different than the strain elsewhere in Asia and demonstrated no capability to infect people.
Muhammad Nadhirin, chief of epidemiological surveillance at Indonesia's health ministry, confirmed that the Sulawesi laborer had tested positive for bird flu, adding that officials hope to conduct more tests on his sample.
The farm worker initially was tested in late March after the epidemic spread to Sulawesi, killing at least 25,000 chickens. That outbreak prompted officials to limit the transfer of poultry off the island and take blood samples from laborers, veterinarians, and others exposed to sick chickens. In total, 81 people were tested and all except one sample came back negative, officials said.
Efforts to complete a second round of testing in Hong Kong were prolonged in part because the farm worker had left his job and health investigators had to track him back to his home village.
The second test, finally completed earlier this month, confirmed that the laborer had been infected by bird flu but the concentration of antibodies was relatively low, officials said. That finding meant the worker was no longer carrying the virus but it was impossible to determine how long ago he had caught it, according to Hariadi Wibisono, a director of disease eradication at the health ministry.
