W

ahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi, has over the past week been treating three patients from Nipa-nipa, Manggala district, suffering from an illness with bird flu-like symptoms.

Hospital medical director Abdul Kadir confirmed Wednesday the patients had high fevers of up to 39 degrees Celsius when they were admitted to the hospital. They were also coughing and feared to be infected by the H5N1 virus.

"Before they fell ill, several chickens in their neighborhoods suddenly died from suspected bird flu. That's why these people were admitted to hospital to get special treatment according to standard bird flu procedures," Kadir said.

He added blood samples from two of the patients, who are children, had been sent to the research and development lab at the Health Ministry in Jakarta for analysis.

As of Wednesday, the conditions of the three patients, who are being treated at the isolation ward, had improved, with their temperatures stabilizing, but hospital authorities will keep them in isolation pending the test results.

"Their conditions have improved, but we have not yet allowed them to go home and they still have to be isolated," Kadir said.

Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital has treated five suspected bird flu patients between January and April this year, two of whom, from Bone regency, South Sulawesi, were found not to have been infected.

Between 2005 and April this year, hospitals in the province have treated a total of 130 patients suspected of being infected with bird flu. Only one of them, who tested positive for the virus, later died.

Hospital director Andi Nursyanti Sapada said medicine supplies and equipment, including protective gear for medical workers, were still sufficient for the moment. She added beds were limited because the hospital only has 10 beds available in the special ward. She also said the construction of a building to accommodate patients suffering from infectious disease, including bird flu, was in its finishing stages.