JAKARTA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A 9-year-old Indonesian boy who had tested positive for bird flu died on Monday, the health ministry said in a statement, taking the country's death toll from the deadly disease to 99. The boy from the outskirts of Jakarta died at the Sulianto Saroso hospital on Sunday after being treated in different hospitals for two weeks, said Joko Suyono, an official at the ministry's bird flu information centre. It was not known how the boy contracted the disease. Indonesia has had the highest number of human deaths from bird flu of any country. A 31-year-old woman and 32-year-old man hospitalised at Persahabatan hospital for fever and respiratory problems also tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus on Monday, the ministry said. According to the statement, the woman lived in East Jakarta near a poultry slaughterhouse that kept many fowl believed to be the source of her H5N1 infection. The man from Tangerang, west of Jakarta, is believed to have contracted H5N1 from his neighbour's pet doves, the ministry said. Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia. Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and kill millions. Authorities are also expecting genetic test results to come back for a fourth case, a 23-year-old housewife from East Jakarta, who died on Sunday from bird flu symptoms. Suyono said there are no obvious explanation for the sudden surge of cases. "We need to carry more tests and investigation first to be really sure." (Reporting by Adhityani Arga; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Jerry Norton)
Health workers collect chickens for culling in Dumurdaha village, about 100 km (63 miles) north of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, January 25, 2008. Inadequate compensation for villagers in exchange ...
