Indonesian woman tested positive on bird flu

A 67-year-old hospitalized Indonesian woman is positively infected by avian influenza, a health official said Wednesday.

The woman contacted with fowls before she was hospitalized on Oct. 7 in Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung, capital of West Java province, said Joko Susilo, an official in charge at the anti-bird- flu center here.

"The woman was tested positive to the avian influenza," Susilo told Xinhua.

He said that the tests were carried out by the health ministry laboratory and NAMRU, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit based in Jakarta.

Indonesia has become one of the frontlines in the fighting against the H5N1 virus.

So far, the country has recorded 52 deaths, surpassing Vietnam, making Indonesia as the hardest hit country, according to the World Health Organization.

Altogether 130 out the 146 human deaths caused by bird flu have occurred in East Asia since 2003, according to the data from the World Bank.

Source: Xinhua