Indonesian cases continue to pile up
Scott McPherson
in influenza and infectious diseases
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3 Comments
Last week, a 30-year old woman lost her life, probably to H5N1. Her unborn baby also died as a result of the infection. She was from Indramayu region, Cilandak village, and was transported to a hospital in Bandung, West Java. Almost immediately, she was placed in isolation and what we would consider intensive care. There is some speculation as to whether or not her husband is a health care worker, which would signal that she received much more rapid medical care than one would normally expect in a rural setting. There is also speculation that the husband may also have exhibited symptoms but was not ill enough to be hospitalized. The caption accompanying the photo (credit *RIRIN N.F./"PR") reads:
GAMBAR monitor di Ruang Flamboyan RS Hasan Sadikin Bandung memperlihatkan kondisi pasien ”suspect” flu burung, IK (30), Rabu (19/9). Sejak masuk RSHS, Selasa (18/9), kondisi IK masih kritis dan tak sadarkan diri.
Also, in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia, two young children have been hospitalized with bird flu symptoms. their young lungs are filling with fluid and their condition is deteriorating. Also from Dutchy of FT:
www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-24
JAKARTA, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two Indonesian children were in critical condition at a hospital in Riau Province with doctors strongly suspecting them of having developed bird flu symptoms in the country where 84 people already died of the virus, according to local media on Monday.
The two boys age one and three are being treated in isolated rooms at the Arifin Ahmad Hospital in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, leading news website Detikcom said.
"They are suffering high fever and respiratory problems," Dr. Azizman Saad with the hospital was quoted by Detikcom as saying, adding "the condition of their lungs is deteriorating, with excessive activities of liquid production."
Laboratory tests by the hospital indicated that the two patients had bird flu but further tests in Jakarta are needed for confirmation.
Over the last two years, bird flu killed three people in Riau alone.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/24/content_6784596.htm
The following is a translation from "Dutchy" of Flutrackers, examining an earlier post from FT member "Commonground":
Watch out for bird flu in this rainy season
Bird flu in Riau is a horrible disease at the moment. Right now there were 23 bird flu cases (grand total, starting from 2005) 3 of them died. In the rainy season we have at the moment, the bird flu virus will circulate for three more months. The health service asked the whole society to watch out and be very carefull, especially the bird breeders.
Then the "sub head" of the health service and a someone from the Riau Food Authority say this: " There were extremely many bird flu cases in Riau, not only the 23. We will not know how much, because the cases were in the interior, dying from high fever is regarded as normal by the public".
" We reported 23 cases, our take is there could be as many identical cases in the disctricts that were not reported". "Because of this we ask the whole community to watch out for this virus".
Then the report goes on: people should go to a clinic or to the Health Service if they display symptoms especially sudden high fever, and get medication. The dedicated bird flu hospitals are: RSUD Arafin Ahmad, RSUD Dumai and RSUD Tembilahan.
They express their concern, because they expect the virus to circulate for the next 3 months.
Note: this story is adapted from a press release.
http://www.riautoday.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2358&Itemid=1
So something is going on in Riau, where four confirmed cases of H5N1 have occurred, with three deaths, and five times that many suspected cases have been reported and treated as the Real Thing. Not a good sign.
Scott McPherson
Tests clear suspected bird flu death in Indonesia | |
| JAKARTA - TWO tests on samples from an Indonesian woman feared to have died of bird flu at the weekend have cleared her of carrying the virus, a health ministry official said. 'Both test results were negative,' said Dr Ningrum who was on duty at the health ministry's bird flu information centre on Tuesday. She was referring to a 30-year-old woman who died in hospital in the West Java city of Bandung on Saturday displaying symptoms of infection with the H5N1 virus. Two tests, usually of samples of blood and tissue, must come back positive for the virus before a victim is confirmed as infected in Indonesia, where the death toll of 85 from avian influenza is the highest in the world. Scientists worry that the H5N1 virus will eventually mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, triggering a disastrous and deadly global pandemic. -- AFP |
Reader Comments (3)
This is the link to the original story above:
"Watch out for bird flu in this rainy season"
http://www.riautoday.com/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2358&Itemid=1
Thanks, Commonground! Bad link repaired, thanks to you. Very pleased to have you on board. You do great work over at FT!
Scott
I'm glad I could help. I really like your site. At Flu Wiki, we have an "Indo Team". We are up to 12 trackers now, and cover 75 indonesian news sites. We have a Case Summary Diary, Spreadsheets, a New Case Diary. All to make it more user friendly. Thank you very much for bringing this important information to the public.