Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Jakarta (dpa) - Health workers have found the first case of a human infected with the bird flu virus in Indonesia, health officials said Thursday.
The poultry worker was confirmed to have been infected by the virus, which had previously only been found in fowl and pigs in Indonesia, but showed now symptoms, a UN health official said.
"The person had antibodies, but no symptoms," epidemiologist Steven Bjorge told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "It still means the person was exposed to the virus."
"It means this virus in Indonesia can affect people, but so far has been just this one case and is asymptomatic," he said.
Hariadi Wibisono, a senior official at the Ministry of Health confirmed that a farmer in southern Sulawesi is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain of the disease and has produced antibodies to it.
Wibisono said the finding meant the worker was no longer carrying the virus and he is now healthy.
"However, we must stay alert," Wibisono, director for the eradication of disease transmitted by animals, told dpa.
Indonesia last month announced that the H5N1 bird flu had jumped from fowl to pigs in the province of Banten nearby Jakarta.
Health experts had warned that pigs can carry human flu viruses, which can combine with the avian viruses, swap genes, and create virulent new strains.
As a result, Health Ministry officials increased surveillance efforts in certain areas of South Sulawesi and Java - Indonesia's most populous island - to identify possible cases of human infection by the pathogenic virus.
Since December 2003, some 36 people have been killed by bird flu in Vietnam. Thailand has recorded 12 fatalities and Cambodia three.
Indonesia has lost some nine million fowl to the disease since late 2003.
The bird flue virus has swept poultry populations in East and Southeast Asia, and tens of millions of chickens have either died or been killed.
Copyright 2005 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
