Two Indonesian girls being treated for allegedly developing bird flu
symptoms have been tested negative to the virus, local media said Saturday.
The girls, aged five and six, were among six residents in the West Javanese
town of Garut who were admitted to the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung for
suspected bird flu, raising fears that a new cluster case emerged after the one
in North Sumatra province, reported the Detikcom news website.
"The conditions of the two patients are improving. The fever has
disappeared," the hospital's director Cissy Kartasasmita was quoted as saying.
In Jakarta, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari dismissed reports that a new
cluster case has emerged in Garut.
"It shouldn't be, because test results have been negative thus far.
Examination is underway and hopefully all are negative," she said.
Bird flu death toll has reached 45 in Indonesia, hitting the world's
highest.
