Bird flu kills 8-year-old girl in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An 8-year-old girl has died of bird flu in Indonesia's eighth death from the disease this year.

The Health Ministry said the girl, from the West Java district of Karawang, died Tuesday in a Jakarta hospital that had treated her since June 28.

She first developed a fever June 18, one day before going on holiday to Singapore, where a doctor diagnosed her with laryngitis, the ministry said Friday on its website. She returned five days later and was treated at a Karawang hospital before being transferred to Jakarta.

The ministry says the girl might have had contact with slaughtered chickens she and her father bought from a local market.

Bird flu has killed more than 350 people worldwide. Indonesia accounts for 158 of the deaths.