# 2469
The Jakarta Post has another long article today filling in some details about the 17 people currently in isolation in a South Sulawesi hospital.
The most important piece of data, whether these people are infected with the H5N1 virus, is still unknown. The hospital states it may take up to a week before test results come back from the Department of Health.
Again, this article makes reference to positive tests for the H5N1 virus obtained by the hospital, and by a micro laboratory of a local university school of medicine - but we aren't told what kind of test this was.
Until we can get more data on the type of test, and the actual results, my inclination is not to attach a lot of weight to these reported `positive' test results.
The good news is that most of the patients appear to be doing well, and no new patients have shown up at the hospital.
This from the Jakarta Post.
Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:13 PM
Suspected bird flu patients isolated
Andi Hajramurni and Suherdjoko , The Jakarta Post , Makassar, Semarang | Sat, 11/15/2008 10:59 AM | The Archipelago
The Wahidin Sudirohusodo regional hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi, is continuing to isolate 17 patients of Biringkanaya district believed to have bird flu.
"Generally the patients are getting better," spokesperson for the hospital's bird flu team, Halik Saleh, said Friday.
Apart from a 2 year old named Ilham, the body temperatures of all other patients have returned to below 38 degrees Celsius.
"We are continuing to observe their progress, particularly because some poultry has tested positive to bird flu contamination," Halik said.
As a precaution, the hospital has been restricting staff and family members from visiting the patients in an effort to prevent any possible outbreaks of the disease.
The hospital, he said, is still waiting for the results of blood tests from the Health Ministry.
An initial test of all the patients' blood has indicated the presence of the avian influenza virus, H5N1. The same test by the micro laboratory of Hasanuddin University's School of Medicine in Makassar indicated the same results.
Halik said the hospital had decided not to use them as an indicator or reference for the illness.
"The only results we will refer to in order to treat our patients will be those from the laboratory of the health ministry's research and development center," he said.
The head of the Makassar Health Agency Naisyah Tun Azikin said all the samples required for testing had been sent to Jakarta on Thursday and Friday. The results should be known within a week.
Naisyah said in anticipation of a possible increase in suspected bird flu cases, his office had prepared two additional hospitals to treat them.
"Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), none were admitted today," Naisyah said Friday.
