JAKARTA (AP): An Indonesian man died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 93, a Health Ministry official said Friday.

Authorities were trying to ascertain how the 47-year-old man contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease, which has infected 115 people in Indonesia.

The man began showing signs of illness on Dec. 2 and died Thursday night at a hospital in the capital, Jakarta, after being admitted with a fever, cough and other flu-like symptoms, said spokesman Joko Suyono.

He lived in the industrial town of Tangerang, 40 kilometers west of Jakarta.

Indonesia has recorded regular deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003 and its 93 deaths now account for almost half of the recorded fatalities worldwide, according to figures from the World Health Organization.

Almost all cases have originated from sick poultry, but experts fear it will mutate into a strain that can pass more easily from human to human. Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens, is a potential hotspot for a global bird flu pandemic, scientists have warned

Source : thejakartapost.com