Indonesian officials urge long-term approach to fight bird flu

Dec 18, 2007, 8:49 GMT

Jakarta - Indonesia, the world's worst-affected country from bird flu, needs to expand and intensify surveillance for both human and poultry cases in order to contain the deadly H5N1 virus, senior government officials said Tuesday.

Cases of human infections declined in 2007 but the human fatality rate has actually risen to more than 87.5 per cent, compared with 81.8 per cent in 2006, said Bayu Krisnamurthi, chief of the National Commission for Bird Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness.

Indonesia has had 93 deaths from 115 diagnosed cases of bird flu in humans, including 35 so far this year.

'The year 2007 has been a year of great strides and even greater challenges in the battle against avian influenza,' Krisnamurthi told a press conference. 'Our fight against the bird flu hasn't finished yet.'

The first human deaths occurred in June 2005 in Tanggerang district - on the western outskirts of the capital Jakarta - when a 37-year-old man and his 8-year-old daughter died.

Krisnamurthi said the country's bird flu control agency this year has expanded public awareness campaigns, supported community awareness programs in more than 100,000 hamlets, worked on restructuring the poultry industry and drawn up a draft pandemic preparedness plan.

'Despite all these efforts, these are still human cases. This proves that the road to success is rocky one, not only in Indonesia but the rest of the world, including new countries like Myanmar and Pakistan who have just reported their first human cases,' he said.

Although progress has been made throughout the country to contain the spread of the virus in both birds and humans, Krisnamurthi said it wasn't proceeding as quickly as expected.

With a population of 220 million living in over 70,000 villages Indonesia's vast archipelago creates new challenges for the avian influenza program, and with a poultry population in excess of 1.4 billion, 'the challenge to control AI is even grater,' he added.

'We must consistent in our efforts to raise public awareness and initiate changes in behaviour that will ensure not only this generation but future ones will be protected from H5N1 and any future virus that may emerge,' he said.

Most bird flu victims around the world have had direct or indirect contact with sick birds, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible among humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Krisnamurthi said epidemiological investigations into Indonesia's three latest human cases indicated the victims either had contact with sick chickens bought from local poultry markets, or slaughtered and prepared the chickens to eat without taking proper precautions.

Meanwhile, a plan for wet-market reform has been drafted, said Tri Satya Naipospos, deputy chairman of bird flu control, arguing that we markets are at particularly high risk for avian influenza as the environment, poultry, and humans mixed in one place.

'We need to expand and intensify integrated surveillance to both human and poultry access,' she said. 'If there is a significant level of H5N1 virus in circulation in poultry there is a stronger likelihood of exposure to humans.'

Human bird flu cases have been report in 12 of the country's 33 provinces, while the virus is endemic among poultry in 31 provinces and has killed millions of birds.

At least 208 people have died in 12 countries in Asia and Africa of the disease, according to World Health Organization statistics.