Another Indonesian dies of bird flu --Saturday, February 11, 2006 08:50 IST

JAKARTA: A 27-year-old Indonesian woman who tested positive for bird flu has died, hospital staff said on Saturday.

The woman died late Friday after being on a ventilator since Tuesday, said Ilham Patu, the spokesman of Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital where the patient had been treated.

Tests conducted by the health ministry, which are normally accurate, showed that the woman had bird flu.

On Thursday a 22-year-old woman died after local tests showed she had the virus. Samples from the two women have been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for confirmation.

If confirmed, they would be Indonesia's 17th and 18th fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. The WHO has confirmed 23 human cases of bird flu in Indonesia, which have resulted in 16 confirmed deaths. [My emphasis]

The virus has killed more than 85 people mostly in Asia since 2003 although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.