3 Indonesian Deaths May Be Due to Bird Flu

Bird flu is suspected in the deaths of a man and his two daughters, and the lack of evidence that they had contact with sickened poultry raises concerns of possible human-to-human transmission, Indonesia’s health minister said today.

The victims, a 38-year-old man and girls ages 9 and 1, would be Indonesia’s first human fatalities linked to the disease. They lived in a suburb of Jakarta, the capital, and died in the last week and a half, Health Minister Siti Fadila Supari said.

“These are suspected bird flu cases,” Supari said at a news conference attended by World Health Organization officials. “We have sent specimens to Hong Kong to confirm the results, which will take seven to 10 days.”

Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been culled across Asia in the last two years because of the virus, which has killed 54 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. So far, human cases generally have been traced to direct contact with sick birds.

Health experts have long feared that the virus might mutate into a form easily transferable among people.