Three Indonesian children were admitted to the hospital on alleged bird flu symptoms and reports of many dead chickens in their neighborhood, local press said Tuesday.

 

The three children, aged 6 months, 5 years and 13 years old, live in the West Java town of Garut, one of the areas put under the government's highest bird flu alert.

 

They were admitted to the Garut Hospital early Tuesday morning with high fever and respiratory problems.

 

"The three are suspected of having bird flu virus and I received reports that many chickens have died in their village," the hospital's medical service head Slamet Yanto Widiantoro was quoted by leading news website as saying.

 

Indonesia has confirmed 120 human bird flu cases with death toll reaching 97, the highest than any other affected countries in the world.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)