Sulianti Saroso hospital alone in bird flu war

Sulianti Saroso hospital alone in bird flu war

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post

Tatang, 40, sighed with relief after his teenage daughter, Ade
Puspita Rina, was admitted to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital in
Sunter, North Jakarta.

"Where else can we find treatment for bird flu patients?
Everybody tells me that if I want to save my daughter's life I
have take her here," the visibly worried father told The Jakarta
Post in front of the hospital's emergency unit last week.

Tatang, a resident of Jatinegara in East Jakarta, said that
when Ade's body temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius, he rushed
her to a nearby hospital but doctors there told him to take her
to Sulianti Saroso.

"I believe that my daughter will be saved after being treated
here. I have read and watched news about how the hospital handles
many bird flu patients," he said.

Ade is just one of 153 suspected bird flu patients that the
Sulianti Saroso Hospital, the only one in the country that is
has the proper staff and equipment to treat bird flu patients in
Indonesia, has treated since the first human case appeared last
July.

Out of the 153, nine have been declared positive with bird
flu, of which five have died. Thirty-seven more are still under
observation and the other 109 proved not to have the avian
influenza virus. Those others were treated and discharged.

Sulianti Saroso spokesman and bird flu surveillance head Ilham
Patu said the hospital had the capacity to treat 44 bird flu
patients at a time and 126 patients of other diseases, including
HIV/AIDS and dengue.

Built on a three-hectares of land in 1992 with a grant from
the Japanese government, the hospital, which only officially
began operation in February 2005, plans to have at least 600
rooms to treat people with infectious diseases.

"We have been busy treating bird flu patients over the past
several months. We are deploying two specialists every day in the
emergency unit to take care of (possible) bird flu patients,"
Patu told the Post.

He said that although the hospital only had six equipment to
treat bird flu patients, they could handle the current numbers.

"We, however, doubt if we can handle more patients, especially
with a possible pandemic getting closer. We must have more
equipment, specialists and rooms to treat patients," he said.

Health experts worry that avian flu cases will increase in the
country as the rainy season kicks in, the normal time for
influenza viruses to peak. If the virus mutates so it can pass
between humans, the country could be at the center of a global
pandemic.

Patu said many countries have expressed a commitment to help
expand and modernize the hospital but it had so far relied solely
on government funding.

The hospital was named after Prof. Dr. Julie Sulianti Saroso
for her services in fighting infectious diseases during the
struggle for independence against the Dutch.

Sulianti, who was born in 1917 on Bali, devoted her life to
curing people with infectious diseases from Tambun in West
Jakarta to Gresik in East Java. Besides directly treating
patients, she is also known for her research to fight disease.

The hospital first became known to the public when it handled
several cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in
2003.

"We have proposed to the government that the hospital have a
WHO-sanctioned laboratory so that we don't have to depend on a
laboratory in Hong Kong to determine the status of a bird flu
patient. I think it is critical in curbing the spread of bird
flu," Patu said.

While bird flu has become endemic in many countries in Asia,
the region has only one WHO-sanctioned laboratory.