Health ministry yet to carry out bird flu checks
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With the regional death toll from bird flu rising to seven with another confirmed death in Vietnam on Saturday, the Ministry of Health acknowledged it has yet to carry out a nationwide check to determine if an outbreak exists in the country.
Director general for infectious disease eradication at the Ministry of Health Umar Fahmi Ismail said on Saturday that checks would likely be made in Jakarta, the Riau islands, East Java and possibly elsewhere.
"We shall make sure first whether our team is ready to carry out the checks, including that financial support is available. Afterward we can send out teams to a number of locations."
Similar checks have been made on other occasions to detect diseases such as hepatitis.
Umar called on the public to be aware of the dangers of bird flu, particularly those working at or near livestock farms.
"So far, nobody in Indonesia has been reported as suffering from bird flu," he said.
The public should also understand that the flu would not be spread either from one human to another or by consuming cooked chicken meat. "But the flu can spread from live chickens to humans," he said.
Officials have acknowledged that a virus has killed thousands of chickens on Bali in the past three months, but insisted that no traces of bird flu have been found. They blamed it on Newcastle disease, a highly contagious avian disease which is not harmful to people.
However, the OIE, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization compiling data on animal diseases, notes on its website that many of Newcastle's symptoms are similar to those for avian flu.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the bird flu outbreak could be more deadly than last year's SARS epidemic. Describing the outbreak as "historically unprecedented", the organization has expressed fears the virus could create a new, virulent strain of influenza, Reuters reported.
WHO says anyone exposed to the disease should be quarantined to avoid contact with sufferers of regular human influenza.
Umar said that the Ministry of Health sent on Saturday an instruction letter to all provincial offices to raise their awareness of bird flu and to report all flu-like symptoms to the ministry. The letter was the second issued by the ministry.
In the event of an outbreak, the agriculture ministry would be responsible for keeping the public informed, an official said.
"It relates to poultry disease, although it could possibly infect humans, it would be the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture," director of veterinary community of the ministry Bachtiar Moerad told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Separately, Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragih said the government had taken safety measures in anticipation of poultry imports affected with diseases such as bird flu or anthrax.
In a visit to the Citeureup Recreational Gardens in Bogor, West Java, Saragih said the government had banned poultry from countries affected by bird flu, including Vietnam and Thailand.
The government also sought to calm fears of other husbandry disease outbreaks before the Islamic Day of Sacrifice on Feb. 1.
"We plan to field 300 veterinary students, veterinarians from the animal husbandry service to monitor animals to be slaughtered for the religious offering," Director General for Development of Animal Husbandry Production Sofjan Sudradjat told Antara news agency, specifying attention to areas prone to anthrax.
Meanwhile, WHO confirmed another death in Vietnam from the bird flu virus, and two new cases of bird flu in Ho Chi Minh City, which previously had not reported any patients. A 13-year- old-boy died on Jan. 22, bringing the toll to as many as seven.
Thailand, one of the world's top five poultry exporters, will host a meeting beginning on Wednesday of agriculture and health ministers from bird flu-affected countries.