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Bali Hospital Confirms Two Cases of Bird Flu
Made Arya Kencana | October 10, 2011

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Denpasar. Bali officials are on alert again after two children at Denpasar’s Sanglah General Hospital were diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

The siblings, 5-year-old Nengah Rika and 10-year-old Wayan Aldiawan of Bangli district, were admitted to the hospital on Friday night with symptoms of avian influenza and placed in isolation.

The hospital’s medical and nursing director, Anak Agung Ngurah Jaya Kusuma, said on Sunday that the children had been in direct contact with dead poultry around their house and were treated at a local health clinic before being brought to Sanglah.

Officials are still waiting for results of further tests from Udayana University and the Health Ministry.

Bali Animal Husbandry Agency head Putu Sumantra said a team had been deployed to Bangli, but preliminary results showed no trace of H5N1. He said that given the preliminary test, he was not ready to conclude the birds died of avian influenza.

“Nevertheless we remain vigilant. Some of the dead birds have been sent for further lab tests, the area has been sterilized and we have taken samples from family members,” he said.

A total of two people died of the virus in 2007 and 2008, but the province has still not enacted a 2005 gubernatorial regulation banning the import of poultry into the island from other areas.

Denpasar agricultural quarantine chief Saiful Muhtadin said many attempts were made to smuggle poultry into Bali, especially through Padangbai and Gilimanuk harbors.