Indonesia makes u-turn on flu reports

The Indonesian government has made a u-turn on a decision to delay reporting new cases of bird flu – two deaths in July.

According to Bloomberg, health minister Siti Fadilah Supari did not give a reason when she said the government would not release figures until December this year.

However, this week the government reported the July fatalities and said there had been no deaths recorded for August.

The World Health Organization's latest figures for bird flu in the country stood at 135 cases and 110 fatalities in Indonesia in June.

Deaths included a 16-year-old in South Jakarta and a 34-year-old in Banten Province.

Both of the government-reported July fatalities also occurred in the Banten province.

According to Bloomberg, 12 Indonesian provinces had been affected by H5N1 bird flu leading to fears of a risk the strain could mutate.

Indonesia is the country with the third largest number of bird flu infections in the world.

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Avian influenza can be passed on to humans who live in close proximity to birds and handle them as part of meat preparation.

Concerns are that as more families turn to home livestock for food due to shortages, there will be more cases of the deadly H5N1 virus.