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Indonesia claiming bird flu success as cases drop
The Associated PressPublished: December 21, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Human bird flu deaths in Indonesia have slowed markedly over the last three months, a drop local officials attributed Thursday to a more aggressive fight against the virus.
But the World Health Organization cautioned that the fall ? a rare piece of good news in the country worst hit by the H5N1 virus ? did not indicate a trend and refused to speculate on possible reasons for it.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah said the success was due to a more forceful vaccination and culling policy which led the government to recently declare 14 of its 33 provinces free of the virus in poultry stocks.
She also cited an ongoing public education campaign.
"The drop in cases is because of the success of the government ... which is now unified and moving quickly," she told The Associated Press on Thursday. "If the birds are free of the virus, so are humans."
The virulent H5N1 form of bird flu began devastating Asian poultry stocks in 2003, but Indonesia did not record its first human case until two years later. Its number of cases quickly soared, and it has now logged 74 human infections, 57 of them fatal.
International experts have accused the country of not doing enough to tackle the virus, which experts fear may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions globally.
Stopping the spread in Indonesia, a sprawling island nation of 220 million people, is a priority because it has been the only country regularly reporting new cases in humans.
Confirmed cases reported to WHO by Indonesia have slowed considerably since the beginning of October, according to data posted on the agency's Web site. Of the 36 cases so far this year, only five have occurred since the beginning of October, and none has been recorded so far in December.
More than double the number of cases were confirmed over the same period in 2005.
"I thank God that the cases are going down, but we cannot celebrate yet," said Nyoman Kandun, director-general of communicable disease control at the health ministry, adding it would take at least three more months of declining cases to start believing it may be permanent.
WHO said it was too soon to read anything into the data, saying "it does not indicate any trend, and we cannot speculate at all about the reasons, nor what may happen, in the coming weeks."
Vietnam, the second worst-hit country by the virus, has not reported any human infections since November 2005, although this week it reported its first outbreak in poultry in a year. Thailand has reported three human fatalities this year, while China's last reported case was in July.
David Nabarro, the United Nation's coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza, recently praised Indonesia's government for boosting its campaign against the virus, but warned that major challenges remained.
"There is a lot, lot more to do," he said in September during a trip to the country. "I'm not at all saying it's under control."
The government initially baulked at slaughtering birds in infected areas and vaccinating flocks, citing lack of funds.
It recently launched a large-scale public education campaign, including TV commercials urging people to wash their hands after coming into contact with poultry and to report sick or dying birds to the authorities.
Kandun also said most suspected cases now turn out to be negative, meaning the country's surveillance system is working effectively ? a massive challenge in such a large, spread-out country.
The Associated PressPublished: December 21, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Human bird flu deaths in Indonesia have slowed markedly over the last three months, a drop local officials attributed Thursday to a more aggressive fight against the virus.
But the World Health Organization cautioned that the fall ? a rare piece of good news in the country worst hit by the H5N1 virus ? did not indicate a trend and refused to speculate on possible reasons for it.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah said the success was due to a more forceful vaccination and culling policy which led the government to recently declare 14 of its 33 provinces free of the virus in poultry stocks.
She also cited an ongoing public education campaign.
"The drop in cases is because of the success of the government ... which is now unified and moving quickly," she told The Associated Press on Thursday. "If the birds are free of the virus, so are humans."
The virulent H5N1 form of bird flu began devastating Asian poultry stocks in 2003, but Indonesia did not record its first human case until two years later. Its number of cases quickly soared, and it has now logged 74 human infections, 57 of them fatal.
International experts have accused the country of not doing enough to tackle the virus, which experts fear may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions globally.
Stopping the spread in Indonesia, a sprawling island nation of 220 million people, is a priority because it has been the only country regularly reporting new cases in humans.
Confirmed cases reported to WHO by Indonesia have slowed considerably since the beginning of October, according to data posted on the agency's Web site. Of the 36 cases so far this year, only five have occurred since the beginning of October, and none has been recorded so far in December.
More than double the number of cases were confirmed over the same period in 2005.
"I thank God that the cases are going down, but we cannot celebrate yet," said Nyoman Kandun, director-general of communicable disease control at the health ministry, adding it would take at least three more months of declining cases to start believing it may be permanent.
WHO said it was too soon to read anything into the data, saying "it does not indicate any trend, and we cannot speculate at all about the reasons, nor what may happen, in the coming weeks."
Vietnam, the second worst-hit country by the virus, has not reported any human infections since November 2005, although this week it reported its first outbreak in poultry in a year. Thailand has reported three human fatalities this year, while China's last reported case was in July.
David Nabarro, the United Nation's coordinator for avian and pandemic influenza, recently praised Indonesia's government for boosting its campaign against the virus, but warned that major challenges remained.
"There is a lot, lot more to do," he said in September during a trip to the country. "I'm not at all saying it's under control."
The government initially baulked at slaughtering birds in infected areas and vaccinating flocks, citing lack of funds.
It recently launched a large-scale public education campaign, including TV commercials urging people to wash their hands after coming into contact with poultry and to report sick or dying birds to the authorities.
Kandun also said most suspected cases now turn out to be negative, meaning the country's surveillance system is working effectively ? a massive challenge in such a large, spread-out country.
