Bird flu outbreak: Is it time to panic?
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.