Pakistan announced its first human death from bird flu Saturday as the disease has resurfaced in other parts of Asia, with deaths also reported in Indonesia and China. Myanmar confirmed its first human case.
Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 virus, announced its 93rd death on Friday. A 47-year-old man fell ill Dec. 2 and was admitted to a Jakarta hospital with flu-like symptoms, but he died Thursday, Health Ministry spokesman Joko Suyono said. The man was the 115th Indonesian infected with the disease.
Six people caught H5N1 in northern Pakistan last month and at least one person with the disease has died, the government said Saturday. The World Health Organization confirmed the H5N1 strain was found in the six cases, but said a second round of tests were being carried out to make sure.
If confirmed, the infections would be the first in humans in Pakistan.
The WHO confirmed Friday that Myanmar experienced its first human case when a 7-year-old girl from the eastern Shan State became ill Nov. 21 in an area where poultry outbreaks had earlier been reported. She was hospitalized and has since recovered.
The WHO hailed the secretive country for its transparency and swift action in alerting outside health officials about the case. Myanmar's ruling junta has been under international fire since September for killing and arresting pro-democracy protesters, with dissident groups putting the death toll about 200.
"They handled it very, very well," said Shima Roy, spokeswoman for WHO's regional office in New Delhi. "They actually did house-to-house surveillance, especially in the area where there had been an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry."
The military in China's eastern Nanjing province, meanwhile, banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son were sickened by the disease. Health officials confirmed a 24-year-old man died from the virus earlier this month, and his father, 52, also fell sick. The son was the 17th person killed by H5N1 in China.
The cause of the infection was unclear, although the two Chinese men were believed to have eaten a traditional dish known as "beggar's chicken," in which the bird is wrapped in lotus leaves and baked. No human cases have ever been linked to properly cooked meat or eggs, but raw or undercooked poultry does pose a threat.
The father was recovering after taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu, said Hans Troedsson, the World Health Organization representative in China. More than 80 people who came into contact with the family were being monitored for symptoms.
Local animal health officials said last week no H5N1 outbreaks had been detected among the province's poultry, but Troedsson said sick birds typically are not reported prior to human deaths in China _ a sign the country's surveillance systems need to be improved.
The virus has killed 208 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization. It remains difficult for people to catch, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that passes easily among people, potentially infecting millions globally. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds.
Scientists say it is impossible to predict what the H5N1 virus will do, but more bird flu outbreaks often occur when temperatures drop as winter sets in.
"It's a time where there could be increased mortality to poultry and maybe a couple more cases or suspected cases among humans," Roy said. "There is a very close interface between animals and humans in this whole region."
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