JAKARTA, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesia has confirmed that birdflu as the cause of the death of a 37-year old woman in an outskirt of Jakarta last Saturday, and is still conducting an investigation on which location the woman was contracted by the virus, an official of the health ministry said here Friday.
"The laboratory in Hong Kong said that the result of the test is positive of H5N1 virus," Director General of the Environmental Hygiene of the ministry I Nyoman Kandun told Xinhua in telephone.
He said that the health authorities were examining blood samples of persons who used to contact with her as well as animalsin her surrounding.
In July, Indonesia became the fourth country in Asia to record human death cases relating to bird flu, when a man and his two daughters died after contracting the strain of the virus.
On Sept. 6, the woman was hospitalized. The hospital staff took specimen and conducted some examination for the possible of bird flu, and at the same time sent her blood samples to Hong Kong for further examination.
The H5N1 virus recently killed another person in Vietnam, bringing the total number of deaths to 62 in Asia.
In Indonesia, it has spread to 21 provinces out of 33 since late 2003, killing over 10 million of fowl. The virus spread to pigs in Indonesia's Java island earlier this year. Enditem
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