Free medication care on offer to people with flu symptoms

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Health Agency said on Tuesday the city administration would cover the medical costs of any resident of Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta, showing influenza symptoms following the death of a 37-year-old local woman thought to have contracted bird flu.

"We call on residents not to panic. But please stay vigilant. We will provide free medication for residents in the district who complain of flu symptoms, such as stuffy nose and coughing," agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili said at City Hall.

He said a team of officials from the South Jakarta Health Agency, the Pesanggrahan public health center, the Tangerang Health Agency and the Ministry of Health would monitor the situation in Pesanggrahan and the surrounding areas for the next 14 days, as part of efforts to prevent the virus from spreading. The incubation period for bird flu is seven days.

"Family members, relatives, neighbors, colleagues as well as health workers at the hospital (where the woman was treated), including morgue workers, will be the focus of the monitoring," he said.

Abdul said the team would also work to reassure and calm panicky residents.

"I have told all hospitals in the capital to immediately report any patients with acute pneumonia for the sake of investigating new epidemiologic diseases," he said.

The government has yet to confirm that the woman, who died with acute symptoms of pneumonia at Bintaro International Hospital in Tangerang, Banten, last Saturday, was infected with the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Authorities are awaiting the results of laboratory tests being performed at a World Health Organization laboratory in Hong Kong.

"Hopefully, we will receive the lab result on Friday," Abdul said.

Separately, the head of the City Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Agency, Edy Setiarto, advised people to temporarily stop consuming raw eggs.

People often consume raw eggs as part of herbal potions, locally known as jamu.

"Do not consume raw eggs. Please properly cook eggs and chicken to ensure that any viruses are destroyed," Edy said.

He said his agency was checking chicken farms located near the residence of the dead woman.

His agency found a small chicken farm 50 meters from the woman's home. It also discovered a chicken cage two meters from her rented house and a bird cage in the backyard.

"Both the chicken and the bird are healthy but the cages are unsanitary," he said.

Three people in Indonesia have died of bird flu, and if the woman's test results come back positive she would be the fourth fatality.