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West Java hospital probes bird flu death
The Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung is investigating the death of a suspected bird flu victim who died of acute pneumonia, because initial tests showed no signs of H5N1 virus infection, hospital director says
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The Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung is investigating the death of a suspected bird flu victim who died of acute pneumonia, because initial tests showed no signs of H5N1 virus infection, hospital director says.
Hospital director Cissy Rachiana Prawira said the complete test results would be available within 10 days.
Cissy said the hospital received test results from the Health Development and Research Center in Jakarta on Thursday, four days after Dadang Hadiansyah, 32, died at the hospital's isolation ward.
Dadang earned a living slaughtering chickens.
Cissy said tests conducted by the hospital's microbiology lab also showed the victim's blood and phlegm samples were H5N1 negative.
"We must continue the tests to determine the type of microorganisms that caused the sudden death because the victim had direct contact with poultry," Cissy said in Bandung on Friday.
She strongly denied Dadang's death was due to late treatment, but rather due to a delay in diagnosing the disease.
The head of the contagious disease supervision division at the Bandung Health Agency, Muhamad Songka, said field analysis conducted around the area where the victim lived on Jl. Inhoftank -- where poultry are placed in transit before being sold to markets -- had not shown whether neighbors or the victim's relatives had contracted the same disease.
Songka said he was concerned about the presence of other virus strains that may have caused the acute pneumonia, given the sudden attack.
"I think the spread of the bird flu virus is a mystery. Perhaps it was not the H5N1. We are very curious of the actual cause," Songka said.
After testing around 500 chickens at Dadang's house, officials from the agricultural agency found one chicken infected with the virus.
Dadang' father, Ukun Sobandi, 66, said at least three chickens died every day due to heat and overcrowded cages.
Head of the environmental health and housing division at the West Java Health Agency, Wahyu Suryaputra, said Bandung was vulnerable to the bird flu virus because of a lack of road check points for livestock and poultry carriers.
"We are focussing on identifying avian influenza by conducting tests because we're afraid it could cause a pandemic. Other viruses could also become violent due to climate factors," Wahyu said.
The West Java Health Agency recorded six deaths the from bird flu from January to July this year, with two each in Bekasi, and Depok and one each in Subang and Sumedang.
As many as 34 people from West Java have been infected with bird flu between 2004 and 2008, with 29 resulting in death.
