The Indonesian health ministry has confirmed that a 44-year-old woman is the country's latest bird flu victim. The woman from Sumatra Island becomes the 87th person to die from bird flu in Indonesia.
Officials said the woman fell ill after she brought chickens from a market in Pekanbaru city. Blood tests did confirm that she was carrying the lethal H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
Bird flu has ravaged almost all provinces in Indonesia, which has 108 human cases of the virus with 87 deaths. Health ministry official Joko Suyono said the woman was treated at several hospitals before she was brought to Arifin Achmad hospital where she died.
Bird flu has devastated poultry in Asia and has also caused many human deaths. The only way to contact it is by close contact with infected birds. Scientists fear that if the virus mutates to an easily transmissible form between humans, it could cause worldwide pandemic.
