An Indonesian toddler who died this week has tested positive for bird flu, officials said today, a day after wealthy nations promised almost $2 billion to tackle the spread of the lethal virus.
The boy's 13-year-old sister died last week after being infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, according to local tests. Both cases still need to be confirmed by outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Wealthy nations pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu at a conference in Beijing yesterday. The money will be spent on measures to detect and eradicate a virus which is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.
As experts weigh how to allocate the funding, the human toll from the virus is ticking higher.
A 35-year-old woman poultry culler from the Chinese province of Sichuan who died last week was a victim of bird flu, the WHO said on Thursday, taking the human death toll from the virus to at least 80 since it reemerged in late 2003.
The latest victims appear to match the pattern of infection being passed to people through contact with sick birds.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate enough to pass easily between humans, setting off a pandemic that might kill millions of people and cripple the global economy.