Indonesia denies bird flu death

Indonesia has denied foreign reports a 15 year old girl died of bird flu, it has been reported.

The teenage girl died on Friday at Karyadi Hospital in Semarang city 250 miles from Jakarta after receiving medical treatment for ten days.

She was believed to have bird flu after coming into contact with chickens from a local poultry farm, The China Daily reported.

However, health minister Siti Padilah Sufari told Xinhuanet: "Both of the laboratory tests showed that she was negative of bird flu, so the total death toll [from bird flu] remains 112."

She added two laboratory tests had shown the girl’s blood samples did not contain H5N1.

Indonesia has one of the highest records of bird flu with the total deaths from avian influenza at 244 so far worldwide.

The health minister has so far refused to share samples of bird flu with the World Health Organization so it can monitor the virus.

Ms Sufari has declined on the grounds the samples would be used by pharmaceutical companies to make expensive medicines.

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