RI awaits WHO test on suspected bird flu victim

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said on Monday that authorities were waiting for confirmation from a Hong Kong laboratory after local tests showed that another local man died of Avian influenza.

The 35-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, died at a private hospital in Jakarta, she said.

"Local tests showed that he died from bird flu but it must be confirmed by the Hong Kong laboratory," Siti told reporters referring to a laboratory of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO has confirmed seven human fatalities in this country from the H5N1 strain since July. There are currently 17 patients thought to be infected by the virus still being treated at hospitals.

Meanwhile, the central government launched on Monday a nation- wide health campaign to push local administrations across the country to work harder in improving the health of their people.

The government will evaluate the performance of each administration later, and the best-performing regency or municipality will get a cash reward of around Rp 1 billion (US$1 million).

"We expect a quick response from the authorities on the national level to the village level to deal with infectious diseases such as bird flu or polio," Siti said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has put bird flu eradication as one of the administration's top priorities. Indonesia has also been given international support to combat the bird flu outbreak.

Outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu have killed 67 people in Asia since 2003.

Despite criticism at home, a WHO director praised Indonesia, along with Thailand, for being "well-prepared" for a possible bird flu pandemic compared to other countries in Asia, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

"Thailand and Indonesia are now very well prepared and are responding to the situation," Jai Narain, director of WHO's communicable diseases department, said in Bangkok.

Narain and other WHO experts have gathered in Bangkok for a three-day seminar to discuss preparedness for pandemic outbreaks and other disasters with the health ministries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste (East Timor).

WHO experts said preparedness for a pandemic would require strong health system infrastructures and good inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral cooperation, as has been visible in Thailand's ability to cope with a host of recent outbreaks and natural disasters.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza is thought to be transmitted from poultry to humans. However, scientists believe there may have been cases of limited human to human transmission involving healthy people in close daily contact with a sick person.

They fear the current H5N1 strain may mutate, acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that would make it highly infectious.