Healthspan Blog

Indonesia confirms two more bird flu deaths

Jakarta (VNA) - The Indonesian Health Ministry on August 13 confirmed the deaths of a woman and her daughter in Bali as a results of bird flu, bringing the country's total death toll from the disease to 83.

These were the first human deaths from bird flu on the resort island, where the H5N1 virus was identified more than a year ago.

The 29-year-old woman died on August 12 and her five-year-old daughter on August 3, Bayu Krisnamurti, head of the national commission for bird flu, said.

Laboratory tests provided by the Eikman Institute and the Health Ministry confirmed the presence of H5N1 in both cases, Bayu told reporters.

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In the first ever judicial review case brought against the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), Mrs Justice Linda Dobbs ruled that the Government's drugs watchdog was correct to state that the drugs are only cost-effective when prescribed in later stages of the disease.

The case was brought by Eisai, the Japanese pharmaceutical firm, and Pfizer, which distributes the drugs in Britain, and backed by the Alzheimer's Society charity, which said that treating people at an earlier stage could slow their mental degeneration.

They had accused NICE of acting "irrationally and unlawfully" in recommending that the drugs should not be funded on the NHS for people with early-stage symptoms. They also argued that Nice's decision was "procedurally flawed".

Although the case was defeated on five out of six counts, the campaigners were successful on one count - that tests to assess Alzheimer's were "discriminatory" against people who speak English as a second language or those with learning disabilities.

However, the key claim of the campaigners - that patients should be given NHS Alzheimer's treatment at an earlier stage in the illness - was defeated.

More at TimesOnLine