Australia sends bird flu experts to Indonesia

Australia sends bird flu experts to Indonesia

Australia will send a team of experts to help neighboring
Indonesia as it struggles to combat a deadly outbreak of bird
flu, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday.

Health officials in the world's fourth-most-populous country
believe the H5N1 bird flu strain has killed five Indonesians and
scores more are under observation, while the disease has killed
more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003.

"I think they (Indonesia) are struggling," said Downer, who
last week said Jakarta had been "caught short" by the disease.

Australia has paid for 50,000 doses of an anti-viral drug to
help fight the bird flu outbreak and on Tuesday unveiled plans to
deploy senior policy advisers and technical specialists, led by
the director-general of government aid agency AusAid, to Jakarta.

"These experts will work to make an assessment of the Avian
influenza threat, convey Australia's concern and agree on
specific areas of further Australian assistance," Downer said.

"This assistance is likely to include further strengthening of
laboratory capacity, public awareness campaigns and contingency
planning."

Experts fear the H5N1 virus, which has the power to kill one
out of every two people it infects, could set off a pandemic if
it mutates to become transmissible between people.

Indonesia, which has been criticized for a reluctance to carry
out mass cullings of chickens in infected areas -- as some other
countries have done -- has formed a special team to prepare for a
pandemic and coordinate foreign assistance and funding.

The virus has spread to fowl in 22 out of 33 provinces in
Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, killing more than 10 million
domesticated birds since 2003.

The World Health Organization has warned that flu virus
activity in Indonesia may increase during the country's November
to April wet season. --Reuters