Health workers have found the first case of a human infected with the bird flu virus in Indonesia, a U.N. health agency official said Thursday. The poultry worker was confirmed to have been infected by the virus, which has previously only been found in fowl and pigs in Indonesia, but showed no symptoms, the 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. 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, dpa went on to say, 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, it said. Indonesia has lost some nine million fowl to the disease since late 2003, dpa added. --SP 1013 Local Time 0713 GMT
