Avian Flu : Chicken Sweep

An old woman sit in front of her chicken during an avian sweep by the Official at a village in Jakarta, Indonesia.November 24.2008. Indonesia government has warned of an increase in bird flu cases across Java, saying the deadly virus may have already infected 50 percent of poultry sold at markets throughout Jakarta, Banten and West Java. There was a strong indication that poultry markets across western Java were affected, the National Committee for Bird Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness said. The number of bird-to-bird and bird-to-human infections have declined in the country since 2007. As of October this year, there have been 112 deaths from 137 recorded infections. Just recently, 17 suspected bird flu patients, hospitalized in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, were cleared of having the virus.