At least 55 people in Indonesia have been suspected of contracting bird flu disease that has killed six people, and two others who had had the disease were recovered, health officials said Thursday.

"There are 55 people suspected of having the disease nationwide," spokesman for the Indonesian Health Ministry Sumardi told Xinhua.

Santoso Suroso, head of the Jakarta-designed bird flu disease hospital of Sulianti Saroso, said that two patients had been cured from the H5N1 virus.

"Two people, with initial 'MG' of seven years and 'F' of nine years, have been recovered, both of them having been confirmed of having the disease by laboratory tests here, and F also by a Hong Kong laboratory," he told Xinhua.

Santoso said that in the next few days two of the 21 suspected bird flu patients will be discharged from hospital after tests give them a clean bill of health.

Indonesia already received some of the 10,000 tablets of Tamiflu recommended by the World Health Organization, the only treatment so far proven effective against bird flu in humans, according to the organization spokeswoman Sari Setiogi.

The virus has killed 65 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.

The WHO fears the virus will mutate, acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that will make it highly infectious and lethal to millions of people in a global pandemic.

But, the organization has asked for calm, as there is no evidence through investigation in Indonesia that the virus can easily spread from human to human.

Source: Xinhua