# 1826
This story, carried in The Straits Times, doesn't provide much in the way of detail, other than the suspicion that this 15-year-old boy died of bird flu. Tests are pending, and often take a couple of days to come back.
March 27, 2008
Indonesian boy dies of suspected bird flu
JAKARTA - A 15-year-old Indonesian boy has died of suspected bird flu, a doctor said on Thursday.
The boy, identified only as AY, was being transferred to a hospital in West Java when he died late Wednesday, said Hadi Yusuf, head of the facility's bird flu team.
'He has a history of contact with poultry on the family's own backyard farm,' Dr Yusuf said.
Tissue samples have been set away to be tested for the H5N1 virus, he added.
Two positive results are needed before Indonesian authorities confirm a human bird flu infection.
Indonesia has the world's highest number of human bird flu victims, with 105 known fatal cases.
Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.
Eleven people have died of bird flu in Indonesia this year, 10 of them from Jakarta and its surrounding areas. -- AFP
