29.11.2005

A 16-year-old boy confirmed as Indonesia's 12th human case of avian influenza had two brothers (aged 7 and 20) who died from similar symptoms days before he was taken to hospital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
The16-year-old boy, is in stable condition in the city of Bandung in West Java. The brothers had onset of illness on 3 November and died on 11 November, following symptoms of fever and breathing difficulty. They were never tested for the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus, leaving questions hanging over the cause of death, WHO spokeswoman Maria Chang said.
"They had similar symptoms, fever and respiratory distress, but we don't have samples. We'll probably never have a definite diagnosis," Chang said, adding that the possibility of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza could not be ruled out. No other cases of influenza-like illness were detected in the 80 households of the village.