Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Indonesia have probed the possibility of human transmission of bird flu in Indonesia's West Java province after local test showed three persons and scores of fowls were infected by bird flu virus, Health Ministry and WHO official said here Friday.

On Thursday, two persons living in the same district with the three, were admitted to a hospital in Bandung, the capital of the province for suspicion of having avian influenza, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said, adding that hundreds of chickens suddenly died on bird flu in the district recently.

"The tests (of possible human transmission) are being conducted, " Supari told Xinhua.

She admitted that there were still many poultry raised on backyard infected by the H5N1, swarmed about the yard in the district, which could transmit the virus to human.

Director at the ministry Nyoman Kandun said that three persons from Garut district of the province, a 9-year-old girl, who died on Tuesday, a 6-year-old girl and a 17-year-old man, who were recovered, were positively infected by the avian influenza based on the local tests.

He said that the three persons had contacted with fowls, as chicken and ducks around their area were positively infected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

"A team comprising experts from WHO, Indonesian agriculture ministry, health ministry and bird flu prevention agency, has been sent (to the infected area)," he told Xinhua.

The death of the 9-year-old girl marks the country's 45th H5N1 fatality out of 59 cases, according to the health minister.

The WHO technical officer Steven Bjorge said that the organization had sent one bird flu expert along with those from the ministries of health and agriculture.

"As long as the virus circulate in the bird, there will be some still over into human," he told Xinhua.

Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono admitted that the virus was difficult to be totally eliminated among poultry due to the country's huge territory and large amount of back yard chicken farm.

"Remember, that Indonesia's territory is large, there are 32 millions families raising chickens, those the problem," he told Xinhua.

Regarding to the case in Garut district, he said that it was because "the virus still exist."

He said that his ministry had immediately responded on the emerging of the bird flu cases in the district, as it had earlier prepared for the possibility of the appearance of such case.

His ministry "has depopulated about thousands," of poultry in the district soon after the case appears, he said.

"Now in every region we have a quick respond teams, the team of surveillance and respond," said Anton.

Experts have said that the number of fowl culled and inoculated by the Indonesian health authorities lags far behind the total infected, which can not cut the chain of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus transmission.

Indonesia has become the focus of international, after the finding of the biggest cluster in Karo regency of North Sumatra province, that killed seven of people linked by blood.

Indonesia has said that it could not rule out the possibility of human transmission in the vast archipelago country.

Source: Xinhua