Bali records first bird flu death

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Bird flu has killed its first human victim on the Indonesian island of Bali, according to health officials.

The 29-year-old woman died from the disease on Sunday, the head of the national bird flu team, Joko Suyono, told reporters.

Indonesia has now confirmed 82 human deaths from bird flu, and is the world's worst affected country.

Since the H5N1 virus emerged in South East Asia in late 2003, it has claimed more than 180 lives around the world.

Almost all infected people are thought to have contracted the disease from poultry, but scientists fear the virus could mutate to a form which could be easily passed from human to human, triggering a pandemic and potentially putting millions of lives at risk.

Officials said the Balinese bird flu victim came from a village in the north-west district of Jembrana, an area where poultry are known to be affected.

The woman's five-year-old child also died recently of similar symptoms, although the cause of her death remains unclear.

Contact with infected chickens is the main way for humans to catch the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, and bird flu has been endemic in Bali's poultry population since 2003.

Health officials say they will step up efforts to rid Bali of bird flu, and will work with the tourism industry to try to make sure it does not affect the island's economy.

According to the BBC correspondent in Indonesia, Lucy Williamson, the country's bird flu task force has been struggling to educate people across the archipelago on how to avoid catching the virus from their birds.

But this latest case shows the problems in getting that message through, she says.