# 5902
Map credit - Wikipedia
After last week’s announcement (see Bird Flu Claims Two Lives On Bali) of two H5N1 deaths on the island of Bali, we’ve another report of two people hospitalized in the capital of the Province of West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia with suspected bird flu.
The newshounds on The Flu Wiki and at FluTrackers have been following the Bahasan language reports on an 11 month old, and a 53 year old with suspected H5N1 infection for a couple of days (see here, and here).
Two days ago Ida at BFIC has a story about a large poultry die-off in that region:
Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara ::: A thousand of backyard chickens die of bird flu
This morning we’ve an English language report by Emmy Fitri from the Jakarta Globe.
Two Suspected Cases of Bird Flu in Mataram
Fitri | October 16, 2011
For now, these are just suspected cases, primarily because of the large number of poultry deaths in the Lombok region over the past couple of weeks.
There are a number of other illnesses that can produce similar symptoms, and so we’ll have to wait for laboratory confirmation.
Although we continue to see isolated human infections around the world, for now H5N1 is primarily a threat to poultry.
Despite ongoing evolution and mutation, the virus remains poorly adapted to human physiology, and only causes rare, sporadic human infections.
The concern, of course, is that over time that could change.
And so the world remains at Pre-pandemic Phase III on the H5N1 virus, and we continue to watch for signs that the virus is adapting better to humans.
