Indonesia says food poisonng behind mystery illness

JAKARTA, July 31 (Reuters) Initial investigations into a mystery illness that killed ten people in an Indonesian village have suggested that food poisoning was the cause rather than contagious disease, the health minister said today.

Victims of the illness in the Central Java village had eaten a locally made fermented soybean dish commonly sold door-to-door, Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told a news conference.

Supari said victims showed signs of acute liver dysfunction, which had led to multiple organ failure in some cases.

''This is clearly a single-source incident. It is not an outbreak,'' she said.

Officials previously said the illness had spread fast through the village but did not appear to have any obvious infection pattern.

Thirteen people are still undergoing treatment in hospitals in the provincial capital, Semarang.

I Nyoman Kandun, head of the health ministry's disease control unit, told the news conference that samples had tested positive for a type of bacteria.

''All samples tested positively for pseudomonas cocovenenans, drawing strong suspicions the illness was caused by the dish,'' the official said.

Research in the 1930s showed the same bacteria was found in coconut-based products that had repeatedly caused fatal food poisonings in Java before the products were banned by the Dutch colonial government at the time.

Supari said further tests needed to be done, particularly to look at possible poisoning by pesticide, arsenic, cyanide and other heavy metal substances also found in tissue samples sent to a Jakarta laboratory.

''But this is unlikely caused by industrial waste, since there are no plants in the area,'' the minister added.

Media reports on the illness said some locals believed they were targets of ''black magic''. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but mysticism is an integral part of local culture.

REUTERS ARB ND1742