# 301
It’s been a long day with confusing, often contradictory reports out of Indonesia. Making matters worse, the machine software translator used by stalwart Internet newshounds has been intermittently offline, hindering their ability to convert the Indonesian articles into pseudo-English. While much is still unclear as of this writing, we do know that at least two more suspected bird flu victims have died in Jakarta.
From the Jakarta Post Online:
Bird flu death toll continues to increase
JAKARTA (JP): A 22-year-old woman, a suspected bird flu patient, died on Saturday morning in Persahabatan Hospital, Jakarta, hours after the death of a 27-year-old suspected bird flu patient in the same hospital Friday night.
Metro TV station reported that the two victims were buried on Saturday morning by their families.
Before the death of the two suspected bird flu patients, two confirmed bird flu patients died earlier this week from the lethal bird flu virus.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Aburizal Bakrie emphasized that there would be no change in the current measures against bird flu.
Where things get sticky is in trying to keep track of the new, suspected cases showing up at the local hospitals in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Those of you who have read some of the translated text I’ve posted in this blog understand how difficult interpreting the facts from them can be. When listing patients, genders are often confused by the translating software, reporters often get the names wrong, or sometimes refer to the patients in different ways (Ani Afriani might be referred to as AA in some accounts).
The flubie newshounds are compiling spreadsheets and lists, posting translated text on flu forums, and working through the difficult process of sorting all of this out.
In one of the more recent news items, this one posted by Theresa42 on the new Wiki, and gleaned from Media Indonesia Online, we get the following account:
The Bird Flu patient in RS the Friendship [Persahabatan] continued to improve [increase]Jan 13, 2007
JAKARTA - MIOL: The bird flu patient continued to improve [increase] in RS the Friendship, Jakarta. On Friday (12/1), the hospital received six again the child's patient suspect from one village.
They were the resident of the Cipalahlar Village, Sukaragam, Serang Baru, Cikarang, Bekasi, West Java, that was still allied. Namely Nurjamal, 13, Ardiansyah, 10, and Muhammad Fikri, 8. Three patients were reconciled from RSUD Bekasi, yesterday afternoon. Last night three patients were still reconciled to RS the Friendship, namely Munta, 14, Hamdani, 9, and Damah Sri Fatimah, 6.
The Ardiansyah condition worst. "He could vomit blood repeatedly. When being brought to RSUD Bekasi, trombosit they were very low. Hot him also never descended," said Nurmala, the sister RSUD the Bekasi Regency that took part in accompanying them.
These are, of course, suspected victims, and have not been reported to test positive.
There are other reports, too. Including one that references a health care worker with symptoms, but it is unclear at this time if this nurse was exposed via infected birds or through patient contact.
The next twenty-four hours will undoubtedly bring more reports, and hopefully clarification.
