Indonesian girl dies of bird flu

An 8-year-old Indonesian girl has died from the H5N1 bird flu virus, health officials said Thursday. The girl, identified as K.K., fell ill June 18, six days after carrying home five recently butchered chickens from the Karawang market in West Java, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, director general of disease control and environmental health at the Indonesian Health Ministry, said it's likely she contracted the disease at the market. "She was in contact with [live] poultry," Tjandra said. "She went to the market with her father and sibling and bought five live animals. She chose to hold the chickens after they have been killed." The girl first became ill during a trip to Singapore. A doctor there diagnosed her with laryngitis, Tjandra said. By June 24 she was admitted to a hospital in Jakarta with a high fever, persistent cough and nausea. Doctors believed she had pneumonia, Antara reported. K.K. tested positive for the H5N1 virus June 29. "Her condition got worse and on July 3, 2012 at 22.45 she died," Tjandra said. Indonesia was the hardest hit country during the Asian bird flu epidemic in the mid-2000s, Antara said.