Two Indonesian women died from the avian flu late Friday and early Saturday, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease in the country to 61, health official said on Saturday.
Yulfa, 27, a Tangerang resident died late Friday and Jakarta resident Ani Apriani, 22, died early Saturday, after they had undergone two and three days of treatment in Jakarta’s Persahabatan Hospital.
“Their deaths have been confirmed from bird flu,” Runizar Ruesin, an official at the Indonesian Health Ministry’s bird flu information centre, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The deaths followed that of a 37-year-old Indonesian woman who died from bird flu on Friday.
The latest death was Indonesia’s 61 in a total of 79 bird flu cases, and was the fourth death in 2007. The total number is the world’s highest fatalty tally from the disease.
On Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy from a West Java village died at the same hospital from the virus.
Vietnam has had 42 human deaths from the virus, but none in more than a year.
Most bird flu victims globally had direct or indirect contact with sick birds, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.
Indonesia was initially criticised for its lack luster response to bird flu after it was discovered here in 2003, but made substantial progress in 2006, international health officials have said.
© 2007 DPA
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