Bird flu outbreak: Is it time to panic?

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Something approaching panic seems to be taking hold across the country as the perception emerges that the bird flu outbreak is steadily getting out of control.

Chicken and duck breeders have been hit hardest by the outbreak as demand for fowl plummets.

"Only a few people bought my free-range chickens today, although I tried to convince everybody that they are all healthy," said Ali Murtadho, a trader in Kediri, East Java.

Some Jakarta housewives said they had trouble sleeping since the government issued health warnings and shut down Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta after some birds tested positive for the virus.

Some residents in Jakarta and East Java have released or sold their pet birds and chickens for fear of contracting the virus, which has killed four people in the country in the last three months.

In the East Kalimantan capital of Samarinda, even a cat was vaccinated as Governor Suwarna Abdul Fatah launched a campaign to raise public awareness of the outbreak.

As the number of people being treated for suspected bird flu infections rose to six on Tuesday, the government admitted to a lack of coordination and money in its efforts to tackle the virus.

Biosecurity measures intended to quarantine infected areas have proved to be ineffective as poultry producing areas here are widely dispersed, making it difficult for the government to fully apply the necessary steps, a minister said.

"We admit that the outbreak is difficult to contain as its source is still unclear," said Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The meeting was held specifically to discuss ways of responding to the bird flu outbreak. Also attending were Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab, Minister of Health Siti Fadila Supari and Jakarta governor Sutiyoso.

Anton said bird flu outbreaks in other countries could be contained easily as poultry farms were concentrated in certain areas.

The government, he said, planned a mass cull to control the spread of the deadly virus and has proposed that the House of Representatives approve another Rp 82.5 billion (US$8.42 million) to finance biosecurity measures and compensate breeders.

This proposal is lower than the Rp 300 billion initially sought by the government for such measures.

During the meeting, the government also agreed to declare a region "highly infected" if 20 percent of its poultry population was found to be infected.

Anton said that a more dangerous situation could arise if the virus was spread by migrating wild birds.

The Ministry of Health hinted earlier that the outbreak was caused by migrating birds from overseas.

As of Tuesday, the government was still unable to determine how the four people who died of bird flu had contracted the virus. The government has given up on its attempts to seek the cause for the first three deaths.

After the Cabinet meeting, Alwi called on people not to panic.

"The public should not panic as compared to other countries, such as Vietnam and Thailand, bird flu in Indonesia has claimed fewer lives," he told a press conference.

Georg Petersen, the World Health Organization's representative in Indonesia, welcomed Indonesia's efforts and said it was not easy to contain a disease like bird flu in a developing country of 212 million people.

He called it "a serious situation" and said the H5N1 virus was widespread in Indonesia's poultry population, AFP reported.