JAKARTA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Two more people in hard hit Indonesia, a 15-year-old girl from an upscale Jakarta neighbourhood and a 30-year-old man in West Java, have caught bird flu, a Health Ministry official said on Tuesday.

The girl, who lives in the capital's Menteng district where many high ranking officials and foreign diplomats reside, had caught a wild bird which died two days later, Joko Suyono of the ministry's bird flu centre said.

The West Java man lived in an area where many poultry had died, he said.

Indonesia, where most people keep chickens, has had more human deaths from the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus than another other country -- 63.

Six people have died this year in a country of 17,000 islands and poor infrastructure where most bird flu victims have caught the disease from contact with infected fowl.

Altogether, the virus has killed 165 people in 10 countries and scientists fear it could mutate into a strain that spreads easily among people, triggering a pandemic that would sweep the globe.

AlertNet news is provided by

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink