# 5105
We’ve another media report of a suspected H5N1 infection in Indonesia, this time of a 19 month old toddler from Padang, West Sumatra.
Indefatigable newshound Dutchy has started this thread on FluTrackers, with this machine translation of a news report from Kompas.
Unforeseen Bird Flu Treated in Padang
Correspondent Report KOMPAS Ingki Rinaldi
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 |
PADANG, KOMPAS.com - A toddler with initials NEL on Wednesday (01/12/2010) treated at room Suspect Bird Flu (Avian Influenza / AI) Dr. M. Djamil, the city of Padang, West Sumatra.
19-month-old toddler was rushed to the hospital since Tuesday (30/11).
Laila (37), the biological mother of NEL said she brought his youngest daughter to the hospital on the initiative of her husband.
One of the doctors who are members of Team AI Dr. M. Djamil city of Padang, Dr. Yaniv Sp. A Fitry Finny said, Nel allegedly infected with AI disease.
Finny added, in addition to being treated in the living suspect, NEL was also given a dose of oseltamivir and take a sample of fluid mucus from the throat and sent to the Laboratory of the Ministry of Health to look at the fit /compatibility.
Reports such as this one are fairly common in Indonesia, particularly between late fall and spring. Unfortunately, we often never hear any follow up to these stories.
Indonesian officials have worked to `manage’ the bird flu story for several years now, typically parceling out brief press releases every few months, providing little more than an update of the number infected or killed.
It is likely that a lot of these suspected cases we hear about are false alarms.
There are, after all, a good many other illnesses that can cause similar symptoms (including seasonal flu, pneumonia, malaria, and dengue) – particularly in the first few days of infection.
So newshounds and bloggers dutifully hunt for, translate, and post these stories even though they know we may never hear how a lot of them turn out.
Of course, if we do hear something. The newshounds will be all over it.
