East Java, suspect case

After a few days of quiet, while the UN stuttered over its flu predictions, Antara News Service reports a new suspect case of bird flu on East Java, Indonesia, on the other end of the island from Jakarta. A 5 year old boy was rushed to the hospital Friday night from a regional hospital after his condition worsened. His mother said he got bird flu symptoms after 15 household chickens died suddenly.

This is the second suspect bird flu case in East Java. The disease is clearly endemic outside the capital. Given conditions, it is hard to know how many cases there might be in the country.