Bali flu scare likely false alarm

Bali flu scare likely false alarm

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar/Yogyakarta

A team of medical experts from the Ministry of Health that
examined on Wednesday a toddler in Bali who was suspected of
having been infected by bird flu concluded that he was suffering
from a common acute respiratory infection.

However, they experts said but were still conducting tests to
be on the safe side.

The 21-member team, which includes laboratory technicians and
a pediatrician, visited Kadek Heri Dharmaputra at his family home
in Senganan Kangin village, Tabanan, some 40 kilometers north of
the provincial capital of Denpasar.

Heri, aged 3.5, was later examined by I Wayan Metri, a
pediatrician with the Tabanan health agency.

"The boy displayed symptoms commonly associated with
influenza. Dr. Metri later told me that it was a common
respiratory infection," the head of the agency, I Ketut Sumiarta,
told The Jakarta Post.

The boy's health had significantly improved but the agency
still decided to take further samples of his body fluids for
testing.

The director of the Bali health agency, Made Molin Yudiasa,
had earlier said that Heri had been ill for 17 days, despite the
fact that he had been brought to the local health facility, and
that the medical team would determine whether his blood samples
should be tested further in Jakarta.

The persistence of the symptoms and the fact that the boy's
mother worked at a local poultry farm had worried the local
health authorities. His mother had stressed that none of the fowl
on the farm had displayed symptoms of avian influenza.

Health officials have advised all workers coming into contact
with live poultry against returning home wearing their work
clothes, and have advocated that hygiene be stepped up all round.

The Bali health agency has dispatched five teams across the
province to check for any reports of bird flu infecting humans.
The Ministry of Health has instructed that all farms suspected of
housing fowl with symptoms of illness are to be quarantined. It
is also taking blood samples from farm workers with symptoms of
influenza.

The government admitted on Sunday the existence of bird flu in
the country, saying that 40 percent of 4.7 million chickens had
died of the disease since last August, but stressed there were
was no proof that the strain of the virus in Indonesia could be
passed on to humans.

Separately the government insisted that chickens from infected
areas that were healthy could be sold on the market. However
officials in Jakarta alone have admitted their lack of monitoring
capabilities since 75 percent of the slaughterhouses in the
nation's capital are illegal.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said
Wednesday that ensuring adequate monitoring was the job of the
country's governors.

As senior officials met in Bangkok to discuss bird flu, he
reiterated that as farmers would cull sick chickens on their own,
there was no need for the government to carry out a mass cull.

Despite farmers urging immediate action, Jusuf admitted that
thus far there had been no coordination between his office and
the ministries of agriculture, and trade and industry, which come
under the supervision of the coordinating minister for the
economy.

His office, Jusuf said, could not, for instance, push the
Ministry of Trade and Industry to ban the transportation of the
poultry products from infected areas.

In Yogyakarta, 500 farmers grouped in the Yogyakarta Poultry
Breeders Association (Apayo) demanded that the provincial
government immediately provide vaccinations free of charge and
compensate them for the birds that had died or been culled.

Key facts on bird flu

* Avian influenza viruses are readily transmitted from farm to
farm by mechanical means, such as by contaminated equipment,
vehicles, feed, cages or clothing.

* The virus spreads to humans through air, and direct contact
with birds' saliva and feces.

* The incubation period of the virus in humans is between one and
three days. Highly pathogenic viruses can survive for long
periods in the environment.

* Symptoms in humans include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle
aches, eye infections, acute respiratory distress, viral
pneumonia.

Source: World Health Organization