# 1570
According to the WHO, and nearly all of the media accounts I've seen, the case count in Indonesia stands at 124 infected, and 101 deaths.
Three patients have died this week, and a 31-year-old woman that tested positive for the virus remains hospitalized.
This morning we get two news articles, one telling us that the remaining bird flu patient's condition is deteriorating, and one from Xinhua News that gives the case count as 125 infected, and suggests a new patient may be in the mix.
Right now, I suspect both papers are talking about the same patient, and that the case count remains at 124.
Both are in reported to be in the same hospital, with the same doctor, and are listed as being within 1 year in age with each other. Age discrepancies in the reporting out of Indonesia are almost the rule, rather than the exception.
But we will have to wait and see to know for sure.
Two snippets from articles this morning. First, this from IOL News out of Cape Town, South Africa.
Separately, a woman from East Jakarta was in critical condition after being diagnosed earlier this week as infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The 31-year old woman, was "in critical condition, suffering from serious pneumonia", Mukhtar Ikhsan, who heads the bird flu team of doctors at the Persahabatan hospital here, told AFP.
She was one of 23 people in Indonesia who have been confirmed as having been infected with the bird flu virus but are still alive.
The woman was taken to the Jakarta hospital on Saturday with a fever, cough and headache. She fell ill on January 18 but only sought treatment at a local hospital on January 22 and was later referred to the Persahabatan hospital, one of the two bird flu referral hospitals in Jakarta.
The bird flu information centre has said the patient lived in a neighbourhood with backyard farms and a wet market selling poultry.
And from Xinhua News we get a slightly confusing account. One that lists this patient as being 32-years-old, and the 125th human case, not the 124th.
This comes on the heels of a confusing report from the Jakarta Post (see Crofsblog) on the 101st death.
Indonesian woman tested positive with bird flu
www.chinaview.cn
2008-01-30 13:49:00
JAKARTA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- A 32-year-old woman has been tested positive of having bird flu and is now in critical condition at a Jakarta hospital, local press said Wednesday.
The woman was admitted to the Persahabatan Hospital on Jan. 26 and laboratory tests confirmed later she had the H5N1 virus, the Metro TV reported.
"She is very critical now with pneumonia and respiratory problems," Dr. Mukhtar Ikhsan with the hospital told the television.
The patient is put on ventilator to assist her breathing. She was the country's 125th confirmed bird flu case, which already killed 101 people since the disease began ravaging in 2003.
Experts have blamed widespread bird flu attacks across the huge archipelago on million of backyard chicken commonly found in rural families.
Regardless of the case count, this unfortunate woman's prospects appear grim.
