综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

Asia-Pacific

Indonesian villagers blame magic, not flu

(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-29 19:00
Large Medium Small

The three brick-and-clapboard houses stand along the village's muddy dirt road, empty and forlorn. A naked light bulb hangs from a wire over one door, still burning. A white pet bird cries for food from its cage.

Indonesian villagers blame magic, not flu
Villagers walk out of a church after they finished Sunday service in Kubu Simbelang village, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Sunday, May 28, 2006. An extended family in the village had died of bird flu and no links to sick birds could be found, raising fear of possible human-to-human infection, thus locals blame black magic, not the virus, for the deaths. [AP]

But no one dares to go near.

Health experts have focused on the houses since an extended family started dying from bird flu and no links to sick birds could be established. They suspect limited human-to-human transmission, but say there is no need to panic because no one else in this mountain farming village has fallen ill and the virus has not mutated.

Some neighbors insist, however, that bird flu is not to blame. They are convinced black magic is at work, that ghosts now haunt their quiet Christian community of about 1,500 people.

Many are too scared to even pass by the family's houses, and some who live nearby are awakened by nightmares that they will be the next to die.

"We are so afraid just to step into that house," said a 37-year-old woman who identified herself only as Sembining. "We can't tell what we're afraid of — we're just afraid."

She lived near the victims and said the first woman who died was like a daughter to her. She recalled feeding and caring for her friend as she lay burning with fever before bird flu was ever suspected. Sembining can't understand why she, too, didn't fall ill.

"I think the family was cursed," she said. "It must be, because if it's bird flu, why only their family? Their blood?"

This is the largest cluster in a handful of cases involving bird flu passing from human to human, but scientists think it has always done so between blood relatives — not spouses. That has led some to theorize there may be a genetic susceptibility to the disease, but there is no evidence yet to support that.

Tests found no trace of the H5N1 virus in the village's poultry, and dozens of hens, roosters and chicks run freely in backyards. Pigs, cows, buffalo, dogs and barefoot children roam along the rutted road and across fields of chilies, oranges and limes.

Whatever the source of the infection, six of seven family members who tested positive for H5N1 have died. An eighth was buried before samples could be taken, but the World Health Organization considers her part of the cluster.

As their neighbors started dying, confusion and mistrust prompted villagers to stop cooperating with officials. Many refused to give blood samples, fearing they would later fall ill and suffer the fate of their neighbors.

   Previous Page 1 2 Next Page  

留坝县| 黄山市| 金川县| 交口县| 历史| 洞头县| 手机| 泰兴市| 博兴县| 虞城县| 齐河县| 安康市| 迭部县| 毕节市| 迁西县| 景泰县| 新绛县| 商洛市| 新密市| 景宁| 加查县| 南陵县| 阜新市| 开阳县| 抚松县| 溆浦县| 泽库县| 休宁县| 荣昌县| 榕江县| 玛纳斯县| 丹阳市| 确山县| 钟祥市| 广宁县| 孟津县| 容城县| 日喀则市| 灵川县| 北安市| 镇原县|