BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesian officials said on Thursday that a toddler who died this week has tested positive for bird flu.
The boy's 13-year-old sister also died l ast week after being infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, according to local tests. Both cases still need to be confirmed by outside laboratories recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Wealthy nations pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu at a conference in Beijing on Wednesday. The money will be spent on measures to detect and eradicate a virus which is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.
As experts weigh how to allocate the funding, the human toll from the virus is ticking higher.
A 35-year-old woman poultry culler from the Chinese province of Sichuan who died last week was a victim of bird flu, the WHO said on Thursday, taking the human death toll from the virus to at least 80 since it reemerged in late 2003.
The latest victims appear to match the pattern of infection being passed to people through contact with sick birds.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate enough to pass easily between humans, setting off a pandemic that might kill millions of people and cripple the global economy.
Turkey has reported at least four deaths from the virus this month, bringing it to the gates of Europe and the Middle East.
Neighboring Iraq sent experts to the Kurdish region in the north of the country to search for signs of bird flu after the death of a teenage girl from a fever this week caused panic. However, the WHO in Geneva said bird flu had been ruled out as the cause of her death.
Turkey fears its rapidly expanding tourist industry will suffer if it does not stamp out the virus quickly. Enditem
(Agencies)
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