An eight-year-old Indonesian girl who died last year has been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the nation's 24th bird flu fatality, a health ministry official said.
Runizar Rusin, the head of the ministry's bird flu command post, told AFP that samples taken from the girl were only recently sent to Hong Kong for testing by a WHO-affiliated laboratory.
"Following testing at the WHO laboratory in Hong Kong, the results were sent back to us yesterday and were positive," he said, adding that the results meant Indonesia now had 24 confirmed deaths.