Bird flu suspected in Balinese boy
Bird flu suspected in Balinese boy
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Bali provincial health agency reported on Tuesday a suspected
case of bird flu in a human being as the World Health
Organization continued to recommend a mass cull of poultry in
Indonesia.
Kadek Heri Darman, a child of 3.5 whose mother works at a
chicken farm in Tabanan, was diagnosed of having symptoms similar
to bird flu, the head of the Bali health agency, Made Molin
Yudiasa, said.
He said a blood sample from the toddler would be sent
immediately to Jakarta for further examination.
Yudiasa said the boy had been suffering from a fever for two
weeks, and was taken to Sanglah hospital to have a blood sample
taken.
"Information from my fellow physicians seems to indicate that
he suffers from a flu that has similar symptoms to bird flu, but
it will need a laboratory analysis to confirm whether he has been
infected," Yudiasa said.
He said the boy was still at home and had begun to improve
after taking medicine. Some of the boy's playmates had also
suffered from flu but all had recovered.
The suspected case came only two days after the government
confirmed a bird flu outbreak after keeping it secret from the
public for months.
The government has claimed to have found no cases of bird flu
crossing over into humans. The East Java health agency sent teams
to several towns affected by the outbreak on Monday, but
discovered no cases of bird flu in humans.
However, Gindo M. Simanjuntak, an epidemiologist from the
National Institute of Health Research and Development, told The
Jakarta Post that doctors had never diagnosed patients with bird
flu symptoms as having been infected by the virus as the
government had not acknowledged that the virus had reached
Indonesia.
Separately, director of epidemiology at the Ministry of Health
Indriyono Tantoro said on Tuesday that so far the government
could not confirm whether the bird flu was caused by the H5N1
strain -- a highly pathogenic strain that can infect humans,
until laboratory tests on blood samples taken from poultry farm
employees had been completed.
The government, he said, would send the samples to WHO-
sanctioned laboratories, such as the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
It will take up to two weeks to get the test results.
Indriyono said the ministry had alerted provincial health
agencies and Immigration Customs Quarantine (ICQ) offices across
the country since Monday.
In Bangkok, Kumara Rai, director of communicable disease for
WHO's Southeast Asia region, said he would urge Indonesia to kill
poultry infected by bird flu, saying vaccination and other
measures to fight the disease would not work.
Nine Asian countries have now confirmed they have been hit by
bird flu, which has killed at least eight people and led to the
slaughter or deaths of around 19 million chickens.
Rai said he would meet Indonesian officials at a conference in
Bangkok Wednesday to discuss the outbreak and would "strongly
recommend" they start a cull, AFP reported.
The Indonesian government has refused the standard measures,
citing inadequate funds and fears that the move would be
ineffective.
Georg Peterson, the WHO representative in Indonesia, told the
Post that culling was necessary to control the disease as
quarantining, the disinfection of poultry farms and vaccination
would not be enough.
"But there is a possibility that the government will change
its mind after a ministerial meeting in Thailand on Wednesday,"
Peterson said.
He hoped Indonesia would come up with a proper strategy in
accordance with its situation so as to prevent the further spread
of the disease.
According to the latest report, Thailand has exterminated some
9 million chickens while Vietnam has slaughtered more than 3
million. In Indonesia, over 40 percent of 4.7 million chickens
have died from the bird flu.