Indonesia on highest alert over bird flu: minister
Pastor Dale Morgan
Indonesia on highest alert over bird flu: minister*
Reuters
Friday, January 26, 2007; 2:48 AM
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia is doing all it can to fight bird flu, the
welfare minister said on Friday, a day after officials announced the
country's 63rd death from the virus.
Indonesia, which has the world's highest number of human fatalities from
bird flu, has been trying to step up efforts to stamp out the disease
after a flare up in cases this year following a brief lull.
"Even though our continued effort is giving some significant progress,
we are still on highest alert," Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said at
a ceremony to receive 100,000 sets of protective equipment donated by
the United States.
"Indonesia is very serious in addressing this threat," he said.
Bakrie said the government had succeeded in containing human infections
of bird flu in nine of the 30 high-risk provinces.
The disease, however, remains endemic in fowl in some of the most
densely populated parts of Indonesia, including Java.
After a spike in cases this year, Indonesia moved to ban backyard
poultry in the capital and surrounding provinces, but previous culling
attempts have faltered because of a lack of funds and difficulty
enforcing bans in more remote areas.
U.S. Ambassador Lynn B. Pascoe said the resurgence of bird flu this year
was a reminder that Indonesia had yet to contain the virus.
"We must remain vigilant in both our continued efforts to detect and
contain the virus and to educate the citizens of this nation,
particularly at the village level," he said.
The equipment donated by the United States included protective suits,
respirators and goggles to help health workers deal with poultry or
people infected with the virus.
Indonesia, the world's fourth-most-populous country that stretches
across 17,000 islands, faces an uphill task in fighting the virus.
Millions of backyard fowl live in close proximity to humans and keeping
backyard chickens is ingrained in Indonesia's culture while health
education campaigns have often been patchy and rules difficult to enforce.
Contact with sick fowl is the most common way people are infected.
Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease. With the latest case,
270 people worldwide have been infected since late 2003, killing 164 of
them.
Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that spreads easily
among people, triggering a pandemic that would sweep the globe.