Indonesia "innundated" with Bird Flu Patients

From Radio Australia:

"An Indonesian hospital has been overwhelmed with patients suffering bird flu symptoms.

The spate of possible cases comes as Indonesia is preparing to ban backyard poultry farming after four people died from flu last week, taking the number of people killed in the country to 61 - the highest in the world.

A recent spurt of human infections, which re-emerged in Asia in late 2003, has alarmed health officials.

Doctors in Jakarta are treating nine people with bird flu symptoms, including a five-year-old girl.

Adding to regional worries, Thailand has been forced to cull 1,900 ducks.

In Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 42 of the 93 people infected since 2003, the virus appeared to be spreading fast among fowl in the country's southern Mekong Delta.

In a bid to stem the spread of the virus, Indonesia plans to prohibit people from keeping backyard fowl in three high-risk provinces.

Our Jakarta correspondent, Geoff Thompson, reports that one of the major challenges confronting the fight against the spread of H5N1 is the fact that chickens are kept in backyards.

The prevalence of home-based poultry farms and their contribution to local economies meant Indonesia's government has resisted advice to ban the practice.

But after four new bird flu deaths last week, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Welfare, Aburizal Bakrie, said that the situation would improve if humans and birds were separated."

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This is turning into a pretty big spark. Let's hope there's no fire.