Asia-Pacific

Indonesian girl suspected of bird flu leaves hospital

(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-21 17:21

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 4-year-old girl suspected of having bird flu left the hospital Monday after family members decided against the advice of doctors to treat her at home with traditional medicine, officials said Monday.

The girl was one of 11 people from Cikelet, a hamlet southeast of the capital Jakarta, suspected of having or confirmed to have bird flu.

Laboratory test results for the child have yet to come back, but family members decided to remove her from Dr. Slamet Hospital in West Java province after her condition appeared to be improving, said hospital spokesman Yogi Suprayogi. Authorities were awaiting test results for three additional patients hospitalized with bird flu symptoms, said Runizar Roesin, of the health ministry's information center of bird flu.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 141 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, 46 of them in worst-affected Indonesia, according to the World Health Organization.

Most people have been infected after coming into contact with sick birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic.

International and local health officials have launched an investigation in Cikelet to see if the spike in cases signaled a new human bird flu cluster _ something that would heighten the chance of virus mutation.

Laboratory test results have confirmed that two people from the area died of bird flu and that one was sickened. Four others passed away before swab samples could be taken.