Bird flu cases

Indonesia faces more than 50 suspected cases of toxic bird flu, Indonesian health ministry officials said on Thursday, while lowering their figure on deaths from the disease to five from an earlier estimate of six. Bird flu has killed 65 people in four Asian nations in the late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe. Experts' greatest fear is that the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has the power to kill one out of every two people it infects, could set off a pandemic if it gains the ability to be passed simply among people. Figures on both bird flu deaths and suspected cases in Indonesia, the world's fourth most packed nation, have sometimes been confusing since the country reported its first casualties in July. General symptoms of the disease, such as pneumonia, can have other causes, while local testing has not always squared with results from Hong Kong that are recognized by the World Health Organization. We have four positive bird flu cases. Three died, one is still alive.

More and more cases on bird flu

Probable cases are nine. Indonesia has formed a special team to prepare for any bird flu pandemic and coordinate foreign assistance and funding. The formation of the team under the ministry's National Pandemic Aid Plan was announced on Wednesday. While experts say the virus could have passed in a few cases from person to person among those who had had very close and sustained contact in the last two years, it has yet to mutate into a form that would allow it to do that easily. Millions died in past flu pandemics. The virus has spread to fowl in 22 provinces out of 33 in Indonesia, killing more than 9.5 million domesticated birds since 2003. Indonesia has said it would cull poultry in areas where the outbreak was serious, but little has been done so far.

Cases in other parts of the world

Three domestic ducks have died because of bird flu in eastern Romania, but authorities said that they had not confirmed whether the birds were infected by the H5N1 strain that experts are tracking for fear it could mutate and spawn a human flu pandemic. There are numerous strains of bird flu but only a few are deadly. Agriculture officials said they sturdily suspected that tests now under way in Britain would confirm the birds were infected with H5N1. If so, it would be the first time that the virus strain has been detected in Europe.