13 Indonesian Villagers Get Clean Chit For Bird Flu

A sigh of relief came after the Indonesian health officials announced on Sunday that the 13 people from a village in North Sumatra province, Sumatra, who were hospitalized with complaints of fever and respiratory problems have tested negative for bird flu virus.

Nyoman Kandun, the health ministry's director-general of communicable disease control, said, "Test results were negative for all suspected cases."

All the 13 villagers, including a 7 year old girl and an eight month old infant were from the Air Batu village in North Sumatra province, who developed the fever like symptoms after a sudden death of a large number of chickens in the region.

The health officials suspected bird flu outbreak when three residents died suddenly last week and many people showed symptoms of bird flu, fever and respiratory problem. Tests run on the chickens showed they died from the lethal H5N1 strain of avian flu.

A bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1", is the causative agent of H5N1 flu, commonly known as "avian influenza" or "bird flu", and is endemic in many bird populations.

The bird flu transmits from the bird to human beings through direct contact. But the health experts fear the strain could mutate into a form that spreads easily among human, killing millions of people and sparking a pandemic.

The symptoms of avian influenza in humans varies from from simple flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches, to pneumonia, eye infections, severe respiratory diseases and other severe and life threatening complications.

Since late 2003, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected 385 people and killed 240 of them worldwide. Indonesia has been hard hit with 112 deaths out of 137 contracted people, the highest of any nation.

Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam are some of the counties with confirmed human deaths due to the H5N1 strain.