JAKARTA, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A five year old Indonesian girl has been taken to hospital for being suspected of suffering from bird flu, bring the total patients suspectedly infected with the virus strain H5N1 to 10 in the country, the Indonesian news agency ANTARA reported Thursday.
A hospital owned by fertilizer company PT Kaltim in Bontang has referred a patient, five-year-old Rizki, to the AW Sjahranie Hospital in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, after the child showed symptoms associated with bird flu.
Rizki was admitted to PKT Bontang Hospital 10 days ago when she was diagnosed as suffering from acute pneumonia. She was eventually sent to the AW Sjahranie Hospital because the Bontang hospital lacked facilities to treat bird flu patients.
Mardiono, head of the AW Sjahranie Hospital's medical service unit, said it was possible Rizki had been infected with the deadly virus but the possibility could only be confirmed through a laboratory blood test.
A sample of Rizki's blood had already been sent to Jakarta for the required laboratory examination, he said.
Rizki's father, Fauzi, said the child had been running a high fever for the past 10 days.
The Indonesian government has declared several bird flu outbreaks in Jakarta and Tangerang an "extraordinory happening."
So far, four people have died of the deadly disease and two others were suspected of dying from it.
The Jakarta-based hospital specializing in the handling of infectious diseases is currently still treating nine people suspected of suffering from bird flu.
They are Anik Setiorini (28), Abdul Mutolib (39), Windy Lisa (3), Rosnani Ningsih (3), Firdaus Heru Priambodo (9), Mutiara Gayatri(7), Winda Eka Devianti (18), and two other patients only identified as JN and DW.
Of the nine patients, two, namely Mutiara and Firdaus, have reportedly been positively diagnosed as carrying the bird flu virus.
Doctors are still waiting for the results of laboratory tests on samples of the blood of the seven others. Enditem
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