Indonesian man dies of bird flu: Health ministry

Jakarta, Mar 16: A 32-year-old Indonesian man has died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country from the virus to 65, a health ministry official today said.

The man died at a hospital in the capital Jakarta yesterday morning, Ahmad Prihatna, an epidemiologist at the health ministry's bird flu information centre said by telephone.

The man, from east Jakarta, kept a pet bird in his house, the official added.

''But it has not been determined whether the bird was infected with bird flu,'' he said.

The man was admitted to Persahabatan hospital, one of Jakarta's two bird flu treatment centres, on Wednesday after being treated at another hospital in the eastern part of Jakarta.

Indonesia, which has millions of backyard fowl, has the world's highest death toll from the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Bird flu is endemic in fowl in many of the 33 provinces in Indonesia and there was a sudden increase in the number of human deaths from the virus early this year after a brief lull.

The country has tried to intensify efforts to control the disease by banning backyard fowl in Jakarta and surrounding provinces, and increasing culling.

Although H5N1 avian flu mainly affects birds, the big concern is that it could mutate into a disease that easily passes between people, triggering a global pandemic.

In a controversial move, Jakarta declared last month it had stopped sharing H5N1 samples with the World Health Organisation, saying it would only share them with parties who agreed not to use them for commercial reasons.

The two sides then struck a deal on February 16 to resume sharing samples, but under a new framework to give developing nations access to vaccines.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said on Wednesday Indonesia would only resume sharing samples after a global mechanism on virus sharing was in place.

The sharing mechanism is expected to be discussed at a meeting of health ministers from the Asia-Pacific region and select countries on March 27-28 in Jakarta, but the new mechanism would still need to be discussed at a WHO advisory board meeting in May.

Indonesia has said it had restricted sharing samples with foreign laboratories because it is unfair for foreign drug firms to use the samples, design vaccines, patent them and sell the product back to the country.

But sharing of virus samples is crucial as it allows experts to study their make-up and map the evolution and geographical spread of any particular strain. Samples are also used to make vaccines.

REUTERS