HK lab confirms bird flu deaths

HK lab confirms bird flu deaths

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government confirmed on Wednesday the first fatal victims of
bird flu in the country as tests on a man and his two children
who died this month showed they had the virus.

But Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari urged the public to
remain calm as the H5N1 avian flu virus is only transmitted from
poultry to humans, and not between humans.

"We have obtained the result from Hong Kong. It is confirmed
that it was H51N," Siti told the press at the Presidential
Office, referring to a Hong Kong laboratory where the government
sent specimens to determine the cause of the deaths.

"Don't panic because this is a conventional virus. It's not
transmittable between humans," she said, adding that people could
still consume poultry products as long as they were cooked well.

This is the first human death case from bird flu that has been
reported in the country. Another man, who works on a poultry farm
in South Sulawesi, tested positive for the virus. But, he shows
no symptoms and leads a normal life.

The government last week expressed concern that it could be
bird flu, which caused the death of 38-year-old Iwan Siswara
Rafei and his two young daughters. Iwan was an auditor for the
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and lived in Tanggerang, Banten.

The government, however, is at a complete loss as to how Iwan
and his daughters contracted the deadly virus.

The victims are not known to have had any contact with sick
fowl within the past four months, according to the health
ministry. However, the government says that there is a poultry
farm located about 15 kilometers away from the family home.

Some 300 people who recently came into contact with Iwan are
now under close observation by the ministry's officers.

Georg Petersen, a representative of the World Health
Organization (WHO) in Indonesia, was quoted by AFP as saying that
the government should investigate how the three victims became
infected and conduct surveillance to prevent further human
infections.

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said in
order to help prevent the outbreak of bird flu, the government
would intensify biosecurity measures at all poultry farms as well
giving out vaccines in areas prone to the disease.

"The ministry is tasked with preventing the virus from
spreading and occurring in the future. We are now still
calculating additional funds needed for the measures," said Anton
after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Anton said the biosecurity measures would include mass culling
of all cultivated chickens and birds within a three-kilometer
radius of any bird flu outbreak, and close surveillance within a
radius of 20 kilometers from the initial source.

Another biosecurity measure is that the government will from
now ban all pig farms located near poultry farms due to fears
that the bird flu virus might jump to pigs, and create a new,
more virulent strain, threatening humans.

The government will also isolate an entire province or city
found to have been infected by the disease.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, has now killed 57 people in
Southeast Asia -- 30 Vietnamese, 12 Thais, four Cambodians and
three Indonesians -- since 2003.

Although there had been no known cases of transmission of the
virus between humans, there are now growing fears that the virus
could mutate and easily be passed between humans, creating a
global epidemic.

The virus has already jumped species in this country and was
found in pigs in May in Banten, raising worries that the virus
could create virulent new strains. Bird flu was first officially
confirmed in Indonesia early last year.