Indonesian Health Minister has called the sporadic outbreak of avian flu in Jakarta an epidemic:
She was speaking before announcing that an initial local test on a five-year-old girl who died on Wednesday after suffering from bird flu symptoms was negative for the virus.
"This can be described as an epidemic. These (cases) will happen again as long as we cannot determine the source," Supari told reporters, but she insisted it would be wrong to label it a "frightening epidemic."
Four Indonesians are already confirmed to have died since July from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed a total of 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.
Six other patients are still in a government-designated hospital in Jakarta suspected of having avian flu.
The U.N. World Health Organization last week warned bird flu was moving toward a form that could be passed between human beings and the world had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic, an outbreak that spreads far more widely than an epidemic.
Supari said the girl who died had been suspected of suffering from the virus. She said more local testing needed to be done, while blood samples would also be sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation.
As to supplies of Tamiflu, Indonesia has 10,000 tablets.
The population of Indonesia is 241,973,879.
Maybe we should reread this.
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