Indonesian health authorities said Wednesday that they had not found a cluster of human bird-flu cases in a remote region of West Java province where two people died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus and a third seriously sickened, REPORTED DPA TODAY. "There is no evidence of a bird-flu cluster in Garut district," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told a press conference, adding that there was also no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus in the area. Supari said health authorities found 20 suspected bird-flu infections among the populations of three remote villages in Garut's Cikelet subdistrict. Two people who died there tested positive for the H5N1 virus while a 17-year-old boy is still alive. Four other people died in Cikelet in recent days, but they were buried before health officials could take samples to determine whether they also succumbed to bird flu while tests on 13 other suspects were negative. To prevent a further spread of the virus, Supari said health authorities had disbursed Tamiflu anti-viral tablets to all residents and expanded testing in communities that were suspected of having human bird-flu cases. "We have given more than 2,000 Tamiflu tablets, and door-to-door bird flu tests were conducted," the minister said. Supari also said health authorities were awaiting tests results from samples taken from a woman hospitalized on August 21 in the North Sumatra capital of Medan for bird-flu-like symptoms. The 35-year-old, identified only by her initials RL, was suffering a fever and cough. She had been in contact with dead chickens near her house, and tests later confirmed the poultry had the H5N1 virus. Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has had 46 deaths from bird flu since last year and is the world's worst-affected nation. Vietnam is second with 42 deaths but has not had a fatality this year. Bird flu is endemic in poultry in 29 of Indonesia's 33 provinces with millions of chickens and ducks infected, Supari said. Bird flu in Indonesia grabbed the world's attention in May when seven members of a single family on Sumatra Island died of the virus - the largest recorded cluster to date. The World Health Organization concluded that limited human-to-human transmission likely occurred, but the virus did not spread beyond the blood family members. Bird flu is usually spread to humans through close contact with infected birds.
