Link found between bird flu victims, poultry
Link found between bird flu victims, poultry
Associated Press, Jakarta
Investigators have found a link between the country's six
human bird flu fatalities and poultry living near their homes,
Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said on Tuesday.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry
populations in many parts of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans
and killing at least 65 people regionwide and resulting in the
deaths of tens of millions of birds.
Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds.
"We can't be sure how the victims were infected by poultry
around their house, but there is definitely a link," Anton told
reporters.
The government has put the bird flu outbreak under
extraordinary status to focus attention on the outbreak in the
world's fourth most populous nation.
It would also launch a mass cull of chickens in "highly
infected areas."
The World Health Organization has warned that the virus could
mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, possibly
triggering a global pandemic that could kill millions.
The current bird flu outbreak in Indonesia has raised
international concern over possible further outbreaks of the
disease, which has killed 66 people in four Asian countries since
late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.
Besides Indonesia, bird flu has killed 44 people in Vietnam,
12 people in Thailand and four in Cambodia.
Officials have called for international cooperation to combat
the disease, complaining they lack the money for vaccinating
poultry and carrying out mass culls in bird flu-infected areas.
In addition to the six fatalities, dozens of people in the
country have been hospitalized with symptoms of the disease.
Australian officials will meet with senior Indonesian
government officials as well as officials from the WHO and U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organization this week in Jakarta,
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday.
Canberra announced last week that it would share with its
poorer Asian neighbors its stockpile of a key anti-viral drug in
the event of a bird flu pandemic in humans.
A donation of 50,000 courses of oseltamivir, commercially
known as Tamiflu, are due to arrive in Indonesia this week and
will be distributed to 44 specialized bird flu hospitals, Downer
said.