Bird flu? What bird flu?

Bird flu? What bird flu?

While the rest of the world is bracing itself for the
possibility of a bird flu pandemic, life goes on as if nothing is
happening for most people in Indonesia. Going by the headlines of
local newspapers and TV news programs these past two weeks, you
wouldn't think that Indonesia is at the center of international
attention because of the growing global concern about the spread
of the deadly H5N1 virus.

Foreign experts and senior officials concerned about bringing
the virus under control have been coming to Indonesia, where
three people have been confirmed to have died from bird flu
during the past three months and two more are confirmed
sufferers. A handful more people have tested influenza positive
in preliminary tests here and are currently undergoing medical
treatment, with some reports suggesting there are as many as 85
other suspected bird flu cases in the country.

The latest visitor was U.S. Secretary of Health and Human
Services Michael O. Leavitt, who on Monday pledged to give
Indonesia $3.15 million to help the government here fight the
menace.

Typically, Leavitt's visit, like others before him these past
few weeks, generated little media publicity, and thus public
interest. It's like we're saying to our American guest, "we'll
take your money, thank you, and goodbye." Afterwards, we all go
back to our normal routine. But for how long -- that will be the
crucial question.

Welcome to Indonesia, the land of multiple crises these past
eight years, so much so that by now we have become adept at
weathering a crisis by simply wishing it away. Since the
devastating 1998 financial meltdown, our national leaders have
become skilled at developing this "no sense of crisis" attitude.
We have seen this time and again as calamities strike this nation
one after another. We saw this attitude when the economy was
going downhill economically in 1998, we saw it again when
homegrown terrorists turned Indonesia into a place to be avoided
by foreigners at almost all costs. We are seeing it again now, as
one by one, people succumb to the bird flu virus.

A lot of the time, we as a nation seem to be at a loss as to
how to deal with these crises. Ditto, it seems, with the bird
flu. A lot of the initiatives come from outsiders, including the
World Health Organization and foreign donor governments, hoping
that Indonesia could contain the problem and thus prevent the
virus from spreading outside its borders.

After the initial shocking announcement by Minister of Health
Siti Fadilah Supari on Sept. 19 declaring "the extraordinary
situation" nationwide to contain the bird flu virus, very little
has been heard about what actions are being taken by the
government to cure patients, and most of all, to prevent more
people from acquiring the virus.

One would have thought that an "extraordinary situation" calls
for extraordinary or drastic measures. We have seen none of these
so far. Instead, we are being told that our government is trying
to deal with the problem on the cheap. Since a mass culling of
birds is considered way too expensive, Indonesia has opted for
the next best thing: Giving vaccines to the birds. How effective
this will be remains unknown.

Contrast this with the quick reaction by Romania when it
learned of its first bird flu cases affecting chickens last week.
Thousands of birds were immediately culled. Now that Turkey has
also reported its first cases of bird flu, Indonesia can no
longer depend on the charity of European governments who are more
concerned about protecting their own people and those closer to
their border. With the bird flu Tamilu vaccine in short supply,
Europe, the United States and other wealthy countries will all be
rushing to make sure that they have enough stocks to cope with
the possible pandemic. Indonesia, like other Southeast Asian
countries where outbreaks of the flu happened first, will likely
be left out in the cold.

International health experts are warning of the possibility of
the H5N1 virus mutating making it possible for human-to-human
transmission. When that happens, then the grim predictions of
millions of deaths could become a horrifying reality. And
Indonesia, given its present lax attitude, would likely to be at
the center of this toll.

All the signs suggest that the bird flu threat in Indonesia
has not been contained since Minister Fadila declared an
extraordinary situation nationwide. What the national campaign to
fight the bird flu needs is greater and stronger leadership from
the top. No offense to the minister, who seems to be fighting
this alone in her Cabinet, but a presidential seal would go a
long way in changing the nation's attitude toward this
potentially deadly pandemic.