Indonesia worries over latest bird flu virus samples

The H5N1 bird flu virus in Indonesia may have undergone a mutation that allows it to jump more easily from poultry to humans, the head of the country’s commission on bird flu control said Wednesday. Indonesia has recorded 79 human deaths from bird flu, the highest in the world, and the country has been struggling to contain the disease because millions of backyard chickens live in close proximity to humans across the archipelago. A doctor examines a woman at a temporary medical centre set up for bird flu checks in Medan “In the past it took exposure of high intensity and density to the virus to get infected. There are now suspicions, early indications that this has become easier,” Bayu Krisnamurthi told reporters. He said, however, that the suspicion had yet to be confirmed. A microbiologist at the bird flu commission said the suspicions were based on preliminary findings of molecular genetic tests conducted at laboratories in Indonesia. “Virus samples from poultry cases have increasingly shown a similarity in their amino acid structure to virus samples extracted from humans,” Wayan Teguh Wibawan told Reuters. “This makes it easier for the virus to attach to human receptors,” he said, referring to receptor cells lining the human throat and lungs. For the H5N1 virus to pass easily from bird to human, it would have to be able to readily attach itself to these special cells. For the moment, because H5N1 is a bird virus, it has evolved to easily attach to these…