Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Indonesia's latest bird flu victim is an eight-year-old girl, whose death has raised fears of possible human transmission of the H5N1 virus. The little girl – originally from Pamulang district south-west of the capital – died last night in the Jakarta hospital where she had been admitted. The news was broken by sources of the Indonesian Health Ministry. The same sources confirmed that, according to locally conducted tests, a 15-year-old who died last Tuesday, 30 May, in Bandung, western Java, was infected by bird flu.

The blood samples of both young victims that were used for testing have been sent for confirmation to a laboratory affiliated to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, fears are growing of concrete possibilities that human transmission of the fatal virus has occurred. The eight-year-old girl had a 10-year-old brother who died three days earlier. However no samples for testing were taken from his body. So far the only ascertained routes of transmission of the H5N1 virus have been animal to animal and animal to human. However, Indonesia has recently reported several outbreaks of infection with deaths occurring in domestic settings.

According to WHO, bird flu has killed 36 people in Indonesia alone; it is the country where the virus has claimed the highest death toll after Vietnam. At the end of 2003, bird flu had killed more than 120 people, mostly in the Asian continent and has led to the slaughter of millions of birds.