Human death toll of bird flu rises again

The human cost of bird flu has increased with Indonesia reporting its 88th death from the disease.

A 12-year-old boy was reported by the Indonesian Health Ministry as having contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease in early October and then being admitted to the capital Jakarta's designated bird flu hospital where he died on Saturday, October 13th.

The report brings the death toll from bird flu in Indonesia to 88 from a total of 109 reported cases.

In a statement reporting the incident, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said: "The investigation team found that he had direct contact with dead chicken near his school in the days before his illness."

Recent figures released by the WHO prior to the latest fatality put the worldwide death toll from bird flu at 202, of which 87 deaths had occurred in Indonesia.

The statistics also showed that a total of 331 cases of bird flu have been reported so far in 2007, an increase from 68 in 2006.

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