Fragments From Floyd

Recombionics reports...a 9 year old female patient (JM) visited the Raganan Zoo prior to developing bird flu symptoms. She transferred to Sulianti Saroso Hospital on Wednesday from a hospital in Bekasi area. Two other patients were admitted on Wednesday and two patients with bird flu symptoms died.

...JM is the fourth or fifth person linked to the Ragunan Zoo which is cause for concern. The 3 or 4 zoo employees were a tour guide, two food servers, and a trader (the trader may be one of the food servers). These positions would not have close contact with the birds asymptomatically infected with H5N1, so the clustering among a visitor and service personnel is cause for concern.

And from Effect Measure: With the deaths of two young girls (ages 2 and 5), the Indonesian alarm bells are ringing more loudly. WaPo reports ten more hospitalized with high fever, bird flu suspected (numbers of hospitalized patients differ in various news reports). TimesOnline says some of the hospitalized cases come from rural areas where poultry farming is prevalent. But they report also a 9 year old girl who died after visiting the zoo. Her death seems not included in the other reports, so it is unclear what the current toll is. If zoo visitor case is accurate, combined with the reports of infections in a zoo guide and food vendor, it suggests transmission from birds has suddenly become much more efficient.