Girl, 8, who visited Singapore dies of H5N1

An Indonesian girl who travelled with her family to Singapore died from the H5N1 avian flu shortly after returning to Indonesia.

The 8-year-old developed a fever a day before her trip to Singapore and visited a doctor here.

She was here with her family for six days from June 19 to June 24 with her mother and some relatives, according to details released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to the media.

She stayed in a hotel here, but the ministry declined to reveal which hotel it was. Her condition worsened after she returned and she was diagnosed with the avian flu on June 29.

The child had reportedly carried freshly killed chickens with her father earlier last month, on June 12.

As a precautionary measure, the MOH has started contact tracing and hospitals have been alerted to the case.

Her aunt who resides and the general practitioner who treated her are both fine, reported The Straits Times.

Hospitals such as the National University Hospital said their emergency medicine departments have been alerted and will look out for patients with flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, chills, body ache, headache and vomiting.

There have been no local cases of H5N1 reported to MOH, and it said  chances of transmission between humans are extremely low.