Public health must come first, says EU official

Public health must come first, says EU official

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite habitual close contact with poultry and fears of huge
losses by businesses in relation to the threat of avian flu,
public health must remain the priority, a visiting official from
the European Union (EU) said.

"You eradicate, you cull, vaccinate, and compensate," said
health commissioner Markos Kyprianou on Wednesday, before ending
a visit to Indonesia. Responding to questions on Europe's
experience in handling the threat of avian flu, and earlier, mad
cow disease, Kyprianou, the EU's commissioner for public health
and consumer protection, said that "one must be realistic."

"It's impossible to have inspectors everywhere at the same
time detecting diseases in animals. Public cooperation is very
important. And for the public (farmers) to cooperate they need to
feel they will receive fair compensation."

The EU has announced a planned grant of 30 million euro
(US$35.5 million) for a number of Asian nations including
Indonesia as part of its assistance to fight bird flu, which has
so far killed seven people -- including two non-confirmed cases
-- in Indonesia, and it is feared it will be spread beyond Asia
by migratory birds.

Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono has repeatedly said
that mass culling of poultry here is not feasible given the lack
of funds needed to compensate farmers, opting so far for mass
vaccinations and selective culling of fowl in certain areas.
Action plans include deploying troops to help check for infected
birds.

The World Bank has also offered unspecified financial
assistance to Indonesia to conduct a mass cull of poultry to curb
the spread of the H5N1 virus, which has even been detected in
healthy chickens.

After meeting Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari,
Kyprianou also cited the challenge in Indonesia, as in other
countries he recently visited such as Vietnam, in raising public
awareness of the dangers of bird flu.

"Here the big challenge is to explain that despite customs and
tradition, and close contact with birds, these could be a
potential threat to public health; so some things will have to
change."

Commenting on Indonesia's plans to deal with bird flu,
Kyprianou said implementation is very important.

"Indonesia has plans to develop cooperation with international
organizations. It's important that these plans, which are
strategic, be transformed into concrete actions," he said.

Local officials have only suggested that farms be moved out of
Indonesia's dense towns, where slaughterhouses are commonly found
in the middle of residential areas, and where raising chickens in
residential neighborhoods is widespread.

Again responding to questions on the experience in Europe,
Kyprianou stressed the importance of "explaining to people the
accurate problem, so they are not too relaxed and not too
panicked." In the recent handling of avian flu, he said Europe
went from complacency to "two months of panic" when the virus was
detected in Romania, despite earlier warnings.

The situation needed a global response.

"It's not a local or regional problem, but a global issue. It
requires global cooperation," Kyprianou said.

The EU will channel the 30 million euro through a multi donor
trust fund to help countries. Individual countries from the EU
may provide more funds, he said.