# 306
While no explosion of cases has been reported in Jakarta, `suspected’ bird flu cases continue to trickle into the hospital. MetroTvOnline appears to be reporting no more room in the isolation ward at RS Friendship Hospital, and that patients are being sent to another local hospital.
A tip of the hat to Commonground, on the new Wiki, for finding this article.
Friendship Hospital denies Ahad on 1/14 for lack of room.
All new patients go to Sulianti Saroso. The Jakarta Friendship hospital, Ahad (14/1) this, was forced to deny the new bird flu patient because of space treated the isolation has been full.
The hospital side, as being explained by Doctor Herlina Burhan, the team of the doctor that menangai the bird flu patient, shifted all the new patients to the Infection Hospital (RSPI) Sulianti Saroso.
Ahad this, the bird flu patient who was treated in the Friendship Hospital, Jakarta East, improved one person more.
This patient was named the Goddess (5), the resident of the Cipalahlar Village, Serang Just, Bekasi East.
The goddess was one from eight children in the Cipalahlar Village that suffered the sign of bird flu after mengonsumsi three kept chickens that were sick.
Seven among them, including the Goddess, currently was treated in the Friendship Hospital with the flattest status of bird flu.
It should be remembered that many of these `suspected’ cases will likely turn out to be something other than bird flu. Anyone who presents with symptoms consistent with the H5N1 virus, and can demonstrate a possible exposure to infected birds or another suspected victim, is isolated pending laboratory tests.
Meanwhile, there is good news in the Riyah cluster. She is the 37 year-old woman who died 3 days ago, and whose son has tested positive for the virus and is in serious condition. Her husband was suspected to have been similarly infected, but a series of blood tests have proven negative. He is expected to be released from the hospital in the next day or two.
This report from the Canadian Press:
Father ruled out in latest cluster of Indonesian bird flu cases
(CP) - An Indonesian man investigated as a possible case of avian flu in the latest family cluster of infections does not have the H5N1 virus, a senior health ministry official said Sunday.
The man, whose wife died last week and whose son is battling the disease, will soon be released from hospital, said Dr. Nyoman Kandun, Indonesia's director general of disease control and environmental health.
"The husband is negative," Kandun said from Jakarta. "Only the son is positive."
"He (the husband) will be discharged tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. He's all right now."
Kandun said three rounds of testing on the man, 46, failed to produce a positive test.
Specimens were also taken for testing from a number of other family members and close contacts.
"All of them are negative," Kandun said.
There are grumblings, quite understandably, in the flu community that perhaps the tests are wrong. The husband was obviously symptomatic and ill enough to be isolated for 4 days. He’s been on Tamiflu since the 11th.
With his wife testing positive, and his son testing positive, is it unreasonable to doubt these test results?
Probably not entirely.
Tamiflu can mask test results, and if it’s working, reduce symptoms. I suppose it’s possible the Tamiflu is working so well that this man appears healthy now, after only 4 days of treatment. In which case, score one for Roche Labs.
But the odds are, he really is negative. True H5N1 infections generally require long hospitalizations and extensive treatment. What we don’t know is how sick he really was when he was isolated. With a wife and son obviously very ill, any symptoms he may have presented would have been taken very seriously.
Once again, we work in a semi-vacuum here, and the information we get is filtered, often mangled, and incomplete. From half a world away, there is really no way to know for sure.
What we really need, and I’ve yet to see any indication of in Indonesia, is a strong follow up of suspected patients a month after being `cleared’ of being infected.
Most importantly, seroprevalence studies, where antibody titers are pulled. They are obviously doing this in South Korea, and have determined that at least two cullers developed antibodies to the H5N1 virus after exposure.
Indonesia is currently the most active region in the world for human H5N1 infection. It is a huge laboratory where the virus can be studied in its natural environment. There are answers to be found there, answers that could potentially save millions of lives should a pandemic erupt.
One has to hope that the cultural, political, monitary and religious barriers to finding these answers can be overcome, and that somehow this critical work can be accomplished.
