Indonesia's bird flu death toll may have risen to 12 with the death of a 48-year-old man in Central Java who was strongly suspected of being infected with the virus, a health official said Friday.
The man was admitted to the Tidar General Hospital in Central Java town of Magelang suffering high fever and respiratory problems, said Nurul Safariah, head of the city's health agency.She said the man died after 10 hours of treatment.
"We have sent his blood samples to be tested by the national bird flu monitoring center in Jakarta, which will further send the samples to the (World Health Organization-affiliated) lab in Hong Kong," Safariah told AFP.