Indonesia health officials suspect that three family members who died recently may have been killed by the deadly bird flu virus, officials said Friday. Officials have sent blood samples to a laboratory in Hong Kong to confirm the suspicion, but if true, the fatalities would be the first deaths caused by avian influenza in Indonesia. Health workers had previously denied that the deaths of a father and his two young daughters in Tangerang, on the outskirts of the capital, were caused by bird flu, but said recent tests indicated the presence of the H5N1 virus. "It's most likely bird flu," said Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari. "The first test showed no signs of the bird flu, but the second test showed some signs." Supari said officials wouldn't have definitive confirmation for a week to 10 days, but the announcement further heightened fears that the virus could now be transmitted from human to human in Indonesia, as the family members weren't believed to have had previous contact with poultry. "Even though we suspect that it's likely bird flu, we're still unsure of how they were infected," Supari said. "The reason is that the evidence showed the victims had no contact with chickens." Health workers last month announced they had found the first case of a human infected with the bird flu virus in Indonesia. --mor 1041 Local Time 0741 GMT
