Minister says no cases of bird flu in humans, yet

Minister says no cases of bird flu in humans, yet
No cases of bird flu in humans yet: Minister

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The health ministry has not found any cases of the bird flu virus
affecting humans following a series of blood tests on workers at
major poultry farms earlier this year.

"The health ministry and provincial and regency health
agencies continue to monitor farm workers," health minister
Achmad Sujudi was quoted by Antara as saying.

The ministry has instructed provincial health offices to
increase their alert level for possible cases of bird flu.

According to Sujudi, officials examined blood samples from
hundreds of farm workers in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,
Bali and West Nusa Tenggara. The samples were tested between
January and March.

"There were no infections of bird flu virus in the blood," he
said.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the deaths of
thousands of chickens in the country from January to September
this year were caused by common influenza, not bird flu. The
ministry has distributed bird flu vaccine to poultry farms.

Sujudi said the symptoms of bird flu in humans were similar to
those of common influenza, including fever, headache, sore throat
and a cough.

He said teams from the ministry continued to test blood
samples from farm workers, particularly those suffering from
influenza.

"If the blood contains the type A influenza virus, it means
the patient is infected with bird flu," he said.

The ministry called on farm workers, poultry vendors and
drivers of trucks carrying chickens to wash before, during and
after doing their jobs.

Thailand has struggled with bird flu, with the virus being
blamed for the deaths of 31 people and millions of chickens over
the past two months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier warned Indonesia
that bird flu virus could kill humans, not only chickens.

Steven Bjorge, a WHO expert, said some Indonesian officials
had apparently taken the bird flu outbreak lightly in the belief
it could not infect humans.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced last week that the bird
flu virus found in Indonesia was the H5NI type, which does not
infect humans.

Bjorge agreed that the bird flu virus spreading across
Indonesia was different from the virus found in Vietnam and
Thailand. However, he said the H5NI type of virus found in
Indonesia could be as lethal as the H5NI type Z.

Thousands of chickens in Indonesia died from bird flu earlier
this year. In July, the government started a nationwide program
to vaccinate chickens against the disease.

New cases of bird flu were reported in Grobogan, Central Java,
last month, killing 350 chickens.

WHO said the selected culling of infected poultry was the best
measure to stop the spread of the virus.