WHO completes bird flu study on biggest cluster death in Indonesia
18/6/2006 10:18
The World Health Organization (WHO) had completed a month-long
investigation of Indonesia's biggest cluster death of bird flu in Karo regency,
North Sumatra, but declined to reveal any results, local media reported in
Jakarta yesterday.
WHO Spokesperson Sari P. Setiogi said that the
organization had ended its investigation of the death of seven blood-linked
people in Karo last week but the conclusion was not publicized due to Karo
residents' objection.
"The threats from the Karo residents have nothing to do
with the WHO team's investigation. The investigation was completed last week so
the team had to leave Karo," she was quoted as saying by the Jakarta
Post.
When asked about the results, she declined to comment, saying the WHO
had submitted the results to the Indonesian Health Ministry which was authorized
to issue such a statement.
Dozens of residents staged a protest on Wednesday
at the North Sumatra governor's office, demanding that the governor should ask
the WHO team to leave the area within three days. They were threatening to
personally tell the team to leave Karo if the government took no action by
Friday.
This was not the first time that the village made media headlines
since seven people from one family there were confirmed to die of the
virus.
The first person in the family to die, a woman in her late 30s, was
also believed to have had bird flu. She was buried before tests could be carried
out.
Scientists feared that the family's case may represent what was known as
tertiary transmission, where someone may have been infected by a chicken and
later infected a relative, who then infected others within the group.
Xinhua News
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