Are we seeing a pattern change in latest Indonesian human H5N1 cases?
Scott McPherson
in influenza and infectious diseases
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1 Comment
A 38-year old male cargo worker from Tangerang, 20+ miles west of Jakarta. A 19-year-old male factory worker from Tangerang. The data may not be sufficient to make a distinction, but I have an uneasy feeling about these last two reported human H5N1 deaths from the same province of Indonesia.
We don't know much yet about either case. The cargo worker is not "officially" dead of H5N1, although locals familiar with the case swear that tests confirmed the presence of H5N1 bird flu. And the details are just coming in on the teenage factory worker.
But so far, there is nothing solid to tie these two deaths to exposure to sickened poultry. Both had poultry, apparently, but there is no evidence that their poultry was sick; nor was there clear evidence of sick poultry in the neighborhood.
Previously, we have been conditioned to see Tangerang women die from H5N1 (for reference, look back to my October, 2007 blog entry, New H5N1 death in Tangerang, Indonesia). These two men, from basically industrial occupations and from the same province, raise some fresh concerns about the Indonesian government's decision to withhold precious information until it is rolled up and placed into summary reports.
It also raises fresh concerns regarding Tangerang, which I think we all regard as the top hot spot for human H5N1 infection in the entire world. This is also where the US government placed over a million dollars' worth of aid just a few months ago. Recall that the US ambassador to Indonesia personally handed the aid to the Tangerang government.
Two male deaths that do not immediately track back to poultry, in the same province, within two weeks of each other. It bears close watching.
Reader Comments (1)
I read at FT that the latest case (19 yo male patient from Tangerang) buried dead chickens before developing illness. Perhaps, these are only circumstantial evidences, but it is also true that poultry epizootics are widespread and at least uncontrolled in Indoensia.