# 300
Various news agencies, including Bloomberg, are carrying reports indicating that the 22 year old male who arrived at RS Friendship Hospital in Jakarta yesterday, named Ani Anprianti, has tested positive for the H5N1 virus. His condition is worsening.
From the Bloomberg Report.
New Indonesian Case
A 22-year-old man from Tangerang, in the Banten province on the west of Java island, tested positive for H5N1, I Nyoman Kandun, the ministry's director general of disease control and environment, said today in a mobile phone text message.
The man is from the same province as the woman who died yesterday. She developed symptoms on Jan. 1 and was admitted to Jakarta's Persahabatan Hospital five days later. Her 42-year-old husband and their 18-year-old son are suffering from symptoms of fever and respiratory infection, and are being tested for avian flu, Mukhtar Ikhsan, a doctor at the hospital, said yesterday.
Test results are pending for the other family members and, if confirmed, would represent the latest cluster of H5N1 cases in the southeast Asian nation, said Ruesin, who is head of the Health Ministry's avian flu information center.
Tests are also being run on a 27-year-old man being treated in the Persahabatan Hospital, and three members of another family hospitalized in Bandung city in West Java province, Kandun said.
In a follow up to the death of the 14 year-old boy, Randi, who died two days ago, agriculture officials have been testing and culling birds in his neighborhood. Direct contact with infected birds is, as you know, the assumed vector for most human infections.
The following is an except from a news release from the INDONESIA NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR AVIAN INFLUENZA CONTROL AND PANDEMIC INFLUENZA PREPAREDNESS, dated January 11th, first found by Dutchy, and posted on the new Wiki by Theresa42 (both fine newshounds).
The identification tests from the samples taken from the poultry owned by the family of Rn (the 14 year old boy who died of AI on Jan. 10) – three ducks and two chicken – showed the result as Negative. Rn’s family, who live in RT 02/RW 10 of Rawalele subvillage own 18 ducks, 3 chicken and 4 pairs of pigeons, but the animals are caged across the main road, not close to their house. According to the family, Rn rarely played around the cages.
Meanwhile, other suspects from the neighborhood who are still treated in Persahabatan Hospital – I (4.5), W (5), Al, and N – all of them do not keep poultry at home. From the samples of swab tests of the chickens in the neighborhoods, 4 chicken and 2 ducks are positive with H5N1.
Based on the surveillance on Jan. 9, 2007 at the two locations around Rawalele village – Semanan village, Kalideres subdistrict, West Jakarta mayoralty and Pondok Jagung village, Serpong subdistrict, Tangerang -- the laboratory tests showed that all the samples tested are Negative H5N1.
The risk factors are the slum neighborhood with dense population, and poultry that roam around instead of being caged. Weather change may also contribute to the risk, because the virus survives better in cooler weather condition.
Today, on Jan. 11, 2007, culling has been conducted in the area of RW 10, Rawalele subvillage, Kalideres village, Kalideres subdistrict. The total number of poultry being culled were 737, comprising 337 non pedigreed chicken, 241 ducks, and 149 birds. DKI Jakarta administration has prepared compensation for the poultry culled.
In short, the boy who was confirmed to have the H5N1 virus rarely interacted with poultry, and the birds at his home tested negative for the virus.
A few birds owned by neighbors did test positive, and culling is proceeding in the area.
So we are left with a bit of a mystery. Exactly how did Randi come to be infected? And we still don't know the status of the other 4 suspected cases from the neighborhood.
This story is evolving. When Randi was admitted to the hospital it was announced he had buried a dead duck, or had contact with dead birds, on or about the 1st of the year, and had fallen ill the next day. This report appears to cast some doubt on to that account.
As I say, a bit of a mystery. But one we may never know the answer to.
