Bird flu toll rises, but under control: Govt

Bird flu toll rises, but under control: Govt

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Another avian influenza fatality was confirmed on Monday as a 27
year-old woman died in a hospital here, after being treated since
Thursday.

The Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday that the woman,
identified as K., had contracted the H5N1 strain of the virus,
the most deadly for humans.

It was not immediately clear how or where she contracted the
virus, but it was known that she had been in contact with
chickens that died from an "unknown cause".

Sardikin Giriputro, deputy head of the Sulianti Saroso
hospital said that 15 chickens at the woman's home in Cikarang,
Bekasi, had died, according to her family. At least one estimate
has it that 80 percent of the chicken population in the country
are free-range "backyard chickens" owned by families.

"But we don't know whether her chickens died because of bird
flu or not," Sardikin said.

The ministry put the country's death toll at six. Based on the
World Health Organization's testing standards, however, there
have been only three fatalities, Iwan Siswara, Rini Dina and K.
The other three -- Iwan's two daughters and another girl, 5-year-
old Riska, who died last week -- tested negative on their PCR
(Polymerase Chain Reaction) saliva test.

The Ministry of Health's director-general of infectious
diseases, I Nyoman Kandun, said that although the saliva sample
tested negative, the ministry had classified Riska's case as an
avian flu death based on the blood analysis, which was positive.

Sardikin said that four of the 22 people who had recently been
admitted to the hospital with bird flu-like symptoms, were
allowed to go home because they had been found free of the
disease, while another patient, F., had made a full recovery.

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said that despite the
growing toll, the situation appeared to be under control, and
reiterated that there had been no confirmed case of human-to-
human transmission.

"The death toll is less than in Vietnam and Thailand. People
must not panic," she said.

The H5N1 strain has been spread through poultry populations in
southeastern Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing at
least 65 people, mostly in Vietnam, which has seen 41 fatalities.

The virus has spread to 22 provinces in the country, killing
more than 9.5 million birds.

The government said that it would commence a poultry cull in
affected areas in the near future.

Siti added that 200,000 tablets of the anti-viral drug
oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu), were expected to arrive in the
country by Tuesday, with another 200,000 tablets later in the
week.

She said the medicine was being provided by donor countries
and agencies, and was enough to treat 40,000 people with 10
tablets per person.

The Australian government announced on Monday that it would
donate 100,000 tablets of Tamiflu to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, deputy Japanese Ambassador Masafumi Kuroki said on
Monday that a team of Japanese experts would arrive on Tuesday
and stay in the country for a week to study the virus.

Coordinating with related ministries here, the team's mission
was to gather information about the situation of avian influenza
and to give advice on countermeasures against the disease.