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.