Indonesia faces more than 50 suspected cases of deadly bird flu, Indonesian health ministry officials said on Thursday, while lowering their figure on deaths from the disease to five from an earlier estimate of six, Reuters reported. Bird flu has killed 65 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe. Experts' greatest fear is that the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has the power to kill one out of every two people it infects, could set off a pandemic if it gains the ability to be passed easily among people. "Until now, we reported 63 suspected (cases) of bird flu," I Nyoman Kandun, who heads disease control at Indonesia's health ministry, told Reuters on Thursday. But while 10 of those suspected have died, five of the casualties proved to be from other causes, he said. That leaves five deaths the ministry believes were due to bird flu. Riadi, a ministry public relations staffer handling flu issues, said suspected cases have come from nine provinces across Indonesia's sprawling archipelago. Figures on both bird flu deaths and suspected cases in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, have sometimes been confusing since the country reported its first casualties in July.
