A 33-year-old Indonesian man, who was contracted by avian influenza, is in critical condition in a hospital at Riau province in Sumatra Island, the Health Ministry said Thursday.
Both of laboratory tests showed that he is positively infected by H5N1 virus, an official of the anti-bird flu center of the ministry named only Ningrum said.
"Two laboratory tests showed that the man is positive of avian influenza," Ningrum told Xinhua.
"He is in critical condition now," she said.
The confirmation has brought the total cases to 106 with 84 fatalities in the hardest-hit country.
Ningrum said that the man has historical contact with chicken before he got the germs of the disease on Aug. 25.
"He processed chicken that he bought from nearby market," said the official.
In December last year, the area, where the man lives, recorded sudden deaths of a number of chickens by bird flu, said Ningrum.
Contact with chicken is the most cause of bird flu death in Indonesia.
Three days after the man felt the germ of the disease, he was admitted in Santa Maria hospital of Pekan Baru, the capital of the province on Aug. 28 and then on Sept. 2, he was admitted to bird- flu designed hospital of Arifin Ahmad in the capital.
Experts fear that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus could mutate in a certain level that can make them transmittable among humans that can cause a pandemic where million people can be killed.
As the number of victims of the virus keeps slowly rising in the country, the health authorities have decided to use the country's own anti-bird flu vaccine after September to stop the virus spread on human, despite the World Health Organization suggestion to stockpile the vaccines.
Huge territory, traditional way of rising chickens on back yard and lack of obedience of provincial administration in implementing the Jakarta decision to stop the virus spread, are among the obstacles in fighting the bird flu in the country.
So far, the viruses have killed globally 195 out of 323 infected people, most of them in Indonesia with 84 fatalities and 105 cases.
Source: Xinhua
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