An Indonesian woman who died in October had bird flu, bringing total deaths from the disease in the world's fourth most populous country to five, a senior Health Ministry official said today.
Hariadi Wibisono told reporters the woman's nephew, who was being treated in a Jakarta hospital, had also tested positive for the disease, taking the number of confirmed Indonesian cases to nine.
The tests were done by a Hong Kong laboratory. The woman and the boy lived in the same house in Tangerang, a satellite city of Jakarta, but that did not mean the virus had mutated and jumped from one to the other, Mr Wibisono said.
China's 2.3-million-strong army has called on soldiers to guard against the potential spread of bird flu in its ranks, the People's Liberation Army Daily said today.
The army's logistics department has issued two urgent notices calling on soldiers to deepen their understanding of the disease and prepare for its potential appearance, the paper said.
"We should detect the disease early, respond quickly and take solemn action," the paper quoted one of the notices as saying. "We need to adopt resolute measures to nip the disease in the bud and strictly prevent the disease from spreading," it said.
Yesterday China reported its fourth outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in a month after nearly 9,000 chickens died in the northeastern province of Liaoning.
The disease has killed 63 people in Asia and infected at least 123 since late 2003. In almost every case the virus appears to have been transmitted to humans through contact with birds.