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.