Indonesia has the highest number of recorded bird flu cases in the world

While it is possible that a few cases went unrecorded before the year 2003 officially the deadly bird flu virus infecting humans first appeared on the scene in 2003 and took four lives. In 2004 there were 46 individual cases of the bird flu virus and out of these cases 32 of them resulted in the death of the patient. In the year 2005 almost 100 cases were recorded by the World Health Organisation and 43 people died.

At the beginning of the outbreaks because doctors and medical authorities were completely unaware of the virus they very often had no idea how to treat it which explains the higher number of deaths from the virus at the beginning of its appearance compared to in later years. By the year 2006 which was the worst year for the bird flu virus on record the number of reported cases had climbed up to 115 and out of these 79 of the people died. In 2007 so far the statistics show that only 74 reported cases have occurred and 49 of the patients died from it.

The fact that the number of human cases is dwindling means that finally people are beginning to understand that close contact with poultry and wild birds could mean that they contracted deadly virus. For example in Indonesia which has had the highest number of recorded bird flu cases in the world the government has made great efforts to stop people from maintaining close contact with their poultry which are often kept in the back yards of their houses, freely running through the kitchens and other rooms of the house. Vietnam which is the second worst hit country in the world has also been conducting extensive education plans for the local population to protect themselves from the bird flu virus.

Almost all the bird flu cases have happened in the Far East with a few cases reported in Africa. The closest that the bird flu virus has appeared in humans from a European perspective is in Turkey and in Egypt.