WHO urges solid action plan to prevent bird flu

WHO urges solid action plan to prevent bird flu

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the government
that the longer it takes to implement preventive measures to
handle the bird flu outbreak, the greater the possibility for
poultry and humans to contract the virus.

WHO Indonesia representative Georg Petersen told The Jakarta
Post on Friday that the government needed a thorough action plan
to control the further spread of the disease and it needed to be
done perfectly to eliminate the disease in the country.

Many fear that the bird flu virus may mutate into a new bird-
to-human strain that could lead to a global pandemic if no
immediate measures are taken to contain the disease.

WHO has criticized Indonesia for its delayed reaction to the
outbreak and for making conflicting statements as to its policy.

Indonesia's neglect was evident in its confirmation of the
outbreak in January, months after the virus had already infected
and killed millions of chickens. The first case of bird flu was
recorded in August 2003.

Following the regional bird flu meeting on Jan. 28 in Bangkok,
Indonesia initially rejected a mass culling and agreed only to
vaccinate chickens. The government did an about-face and ordered
a selective culling on Jan. 29, pressured by international
criticism and WHO.

With a population of 216 million spread across over 17,000
islands, the country is facing an uphill task in implementing
measures to control the disease.

Director of the Veterinary Community Bachtiar Moerad at the
Ministry of Agriculture said on Friday that vaccination was the
key method being used to prevent the outbreak from escalating.

"Selective culling is only undertaken in new areas that had
not been affected by the bird flu previously," he said.

Meanwhile, health ministry spokesperson Mariani Reksoprojo
said the ministry's surveillance team was continuing to monitor
hospitals across the country for any human cases.

"Although we are also dealing with a dengue fever outbreak,
this does not mean that we are neglecting the bird flu. We have
separate monitoring teams," she said.

According to the latest information, no human cases of bird
flu have been reported in Indonesia.

Bird flu has claimed 15 lives in Vietnam and seven in
Thailand.