Japan gives more aid for RI bird flu battle

Japan gives more aid for RI bird flu battle

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar

Japan has sent more experts and medical equipment to help
Indonesia fight bird flu, which has killed at least four people
in western Java, the Japanese Embassy here said on Wednesday.

"The government of Japan has decided to send experts and
medical meterials to support and strengthen counter-measures
against Avian Influenza," the embassy said in a press statement.

It said three experts in laboratory diagnosis were scheduled
to arrive in Indonesia later on Wednesday along with the first
batch of medical materials.

Embassy officials could not be reached on Wednesday evening
for confirmation whether the experts had already arrived.

Japan was also preparing to send more experts to Indonesia to
help the government in areas such as surveillance, laboratory
diagnosis and clinical management, the statement said.

Japan sent a five-member expert team to Indonesia in
September, who stayed for about one week to provide advice on
bird flu counter-measures.

Japan also presented the first batch of equipment -- which has
a total value of US$216,000 (euro180,300) -- to the Health
Ministry to boost its ability to identify and track down the
origin of the H5N1 strain of the virus.

Japanese lab experts were quoted by AP as saying they would
spend the next week installing a high-speed refrigerated
microcentrifuge and other diagnostic equipment, as well as to
train Indonesian health officials on how to use the equipment.

More supplies will arrive in the weeks ahead.

Bird flu has swept through poultry populations across Asia
since 2003, resulting in the deaths or destruction of tens of
millions of chickens, ducks and other fowl. It has also affected
humans, killing more than 60 people in Southeast Asia.

Four people have been confirmed to have died of bird flu in
Indonesia since the first case of human infection was discovered
in June.

Meanwhile, authorities were looking into the deaths of dozens
of backyard chickens on the resort island of Bali on Wednesday
amid fears they may have had bird flu, officials and residents
said.

The suspicious deaths of at least 20 chickens have worried
residents in Padangsambian, a densely populated village in
western Denpasar, over a possible outbreak of avian influenza in
their neighborhood.

The deaths started five days ago in the residential area off
Jalan Gunung Gede. A narrow, unpaved path connects the complex to
the main street, and several chickens can be seen roaming freely
on the dirt path.

"I don't know what's really happening. Suddenly one of my
chickens died. And the following day, another two died. It
continued until a total of seven chickens died. Now, I only have
one chicken left," local resident Ni Komang Santini said.

Her neighbor I Wayan Partina provided a similar account. He
lost four chickens in the last five days.

The panicked residents had either buried or burned the
carcasses. However, some others instead threw the carcasses into
a nearby river.

Ketut Santhia, the virology laboratory coordinator at the Bali
livestock agency and the laboratory for the examination and
investigation of veterinary disease (BPPV), said the suspicious
signs observed on the dead chickens were quite similar to the
clinical signs caused by the infection of bird flu.

However, he stressed that a full laboratory test must be
conducted to accurately determine the cause of death, but did not
indicate how long that would take.