# 282
Late on Saturday, it was reported that a young boy (14) had tested positive for the bird H5N1 bird flu virus at Persahabatan hospital. Today, a very small article appeared in the Jakarta Post online edition with the following sparse information.
A bird flu patient found in Persahabatan Hospital, Jakarta
JAKARTA (JP): One patient in Persahabatan Hospital was declared Monday of being infected with bird flu virus, while six patients were still suspected of suffering the fatal disease.
Persahabatan Hospital doctor Multan Ihsan said that the bird flu patient had been in the hospital since Jan. 5.
"A test has confirmed that a patient in our hospital is infected with bird flu. The status of six other patients are still waiting for another test," he was quoted by Elshinta radio station as saying. (***)
Early news reports are often discovered to be in error, so we will simply have to wait and see on this one. The wording is curious: six other patients `waiting for another test’.
Curious also, is the fact that the patient declared infected with bird flu today wasn’t identified in any way. I am assuming that this is the 14-year-old boy from the earlier report. The dates match up, as does the hospital. But the boy was diagnosed, according to earlier news reports, on Saturday, not on Monday.
It is quite possible that since confirmatory tests are required from two independent labs, this second `diagnosis’ is simply a second positive test from another lab.
Additional suspected cases could be nothing more than seasonal flu or pneumonia cases, which have yet to be eliminated as avian flu.
Sorting all of this out takes time. We get bits and pieces from various news sources, and official confirmation is slow in coming.
If previous years are any indication, the next five or six months will be a worrisome time in Indonesia, and I expect we will be on constant vigil.
