JAKARTA: An Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 97, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The 8-year-old boy from the town of Tangerang died early on Friday after being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in the capital, Jakarta, said Sunan Raja, an official at the ministry's bird flu center.
He said the boy had been admitted to a local hospital on Wednesday, nine days after he developed symptoms of fever and cough.
Raja said laboratory results confirmed that the boy had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
The boy lived near a poultry slaughterhouse in the Cipondoh neighborhood in the western outskirts of Jakarta, Raja said.
Indonesia has recorded human bird flu deaths regularly since 2003, when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia.
Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.
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