Indonesian Teen Dies of Bird Flu

Looks like the 14-year-old in the aforementioned "Two New Indonesian Cases" story has died. He was being treated in Jakarta and I assume was getting standard care and anti-virals. But, as I've said at least three times before, Tamiflu doesn't work on the strain in Indonesia. Here's the story from the Malaysian Star:

"JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): A 14-year-old Indonesian boy died from bird flu Wednesday, just days after being hospitalized, a health official said, the first H5N1 fatality in the country in six weeks.

Deputy Director Tjandra Yoga Aditama of the Persahabtan Hospital said the boy died four days after being admitted for treatment with flu-like symptoms.

The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has now killed 58 people in Indonesia - more than a third of the world's total since the disease began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003.

The last recorded bird flu casualty in Indonesian was a 35-year-old woman who died at a hospital in the capital, Jakarta, on Nov. 28.

International experts have accused Indonesia's government of not doing enough to tackle the virus, which they fear may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions around the world."

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Depressing news all around. H5N1 is also ravaging the bird population of Vietnam, thankfully they haven't had any recent human cases.

This is not the case for China, who recently reported a new human infection. At least Egypt hasn't popped up in this week's H5N1 news cycle. I wonder if there's any correlation between bird flu infections and the amount of government control of media; Egypt, of course, being one of the more liberal nations currently tackling endemic high-path H5N1.

Still no word on what killed those birds in Austin.