A TWO-year-old girl on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has been cleared of carrying the deadly bird flu virus, which killed at least one of her neighbours, an official said today.
"We received the test results last night showing that the girl, two years old, is negative for the bird flu virus," said Ningrum, a doctor from the national bird flu information centre in Jakarta.
Indonesia confirmed its first human bird flu death on Bali on Monday, taking the nation's overall toll to more than 80 and raising fears of an impact on tourism, the economic lifeline of the island.
The 29-year-old woman died at the weekend. Her five-year-old daughter died on August 3 suffering flu-like symptoms and her body was cremated before samples were taken for testing, but officials said it could be "assumed" she died due to the virus.
Chickens had been dying in their village, on the northwest of the island far from the main tourist centres. The virus is typically transmitted to people via infected birds.
H5N1 is endemic across nearly all of Indonesia, which has recorded the highest number of bird flu deaths in the world since reporting its first case in July 2005.
Avian influenza was found in poultry on Bali more than a year ago, leading to the culling of hundreds of birds.
Officials in Jakarta have said they will step up measures on the island in a bid to limit any fallout to its tourism industry.
The H5N1 virus is regarded as a global threat because scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily spread among humans, leading to a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.