Mar 27, 2012
Indonesian boy dies from H5N1 infection
Indonesia' s health ministry has announced that a 17-year-old boy from Nusa Tenggara Barat province has died ofn H5N1 avian flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported yesterday. He got sick on Feb 28 and sought treatment for his symptoms on Mar 1. After his condition worsened, he was admitted to a referral hospital, where he died on Mar 9. Health investigators determined that poultry had died suddenly in the boy's neighborhood. Nusa Tenggara Barat province is in south-central Indonesia on the western part of the Lesser Sunda islands. His death pushes the number of H5N1 cases in Indonesia since 2005 to 188, and its fatality total to 156. The country has confirmed five H5N1 cases this year, all fatal. According to the WHO, Indonesia's latest case raises the global H5N1 count to 598, including 352 deaths.
Mar 26 WHO statement
WHO global H5N1 case count
Nepal reports two H5N1 outbreaks
Livestock officials in Nepal confirmed two more H5N1 outbreaks in poultry, according to a report yesterday to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The virus struck two sites in Bagmati province where commercial farms are located. One is a layer farm in Kathmandu where ducks, quails, and pigs are raised separately at the same facility. The other location comprises two adjoining poultry farms that have layers in two sheds and broilers in another. The outbreaks killed 21,806 birds, and the remaining 3,014 were culled to control the spread of the virus. The virus has hit other farms in the same province over the past few months.
Mar 26 OIE report
In other developments, Israel's animal health ministry reported that two more cats have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, according to a Mar 25 OIE report. Officials had been monitoring cats near the site of an H5N1 outbreak in turkeys in Hadarom where cats had been seen eating infected carcasses, after which the virus was found in six cats. Active monitoring of cats in the area found the infections in the two most recent cases, one of which was fatal. Results in 15 other cats picked up in the area were negative. Authorities said they would continue monitoring cats in the village.
Mar 25 OIE report
