Indonesian woman tests positive for bird flu

JAKARTA, Jan 9 (Reuters) A 37-year-old woman has tested positive for bird flu in Indonesia and is being treated in a hospital on the outskirts of the capital, a Health Ministry official said today.

The case comes after a 14-year-old boy tested positive for bird flu at the weekend, the country's first new infection in almost two months.

Joko Suyono, an official at the ministry's bird flu centre, told Reuters the woman from Serpong town in western Java had bought a live chicken and slaughtered it at her house, but it was unclear whether this was the cause of the infection.

He said the woman had been taken to hospital in Tangerang, west of Jakarta, after she suffered high fever and breathing difficulties on January 1.

''The test results came last night and showed she is positive with bird flu,'' Suyono said.

The world's fourth most populous nation, Indonesia has the world's highest bird flu death toll.

World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show 57 people have died across this vast country of 17,000 islands where millions of chickens roam backyards freely.

The government has announced plans to ramp up its fight against the virus and hopes to beat it by the end of 2007, but critics say public ignorance, official ineptitude and lack of money are hampering efforts to stamp out the disease.

People can contract the virus by coming into contact with infected poultry, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that can pass easily among humans, possibly killing millions.

The virus has killed 157 people since 2003 and has spread from Asia to Europe, the West Asia and Africa, WHO says.

REUTERS DKS ND0840