AFD - Indonesia - Reporting Controversy

[sharon sanders]

Indonesia To Stop Announcing Bird Flu Deaths




# 2049

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/

For many months newshounds have complained that local media reports of `suspect' human cases of bird flu are often never acknowledged by the Indonesian authorities. Many of these cases simply fall by the wayside, and we never find out what happened.

We've still occasionally gotten word of bird flu related deaths, but no one has much confidence we are hearing about all of them.

So the following announcement, while disturbing, doesn't really come as a shock.

Jun 5, 5:06 AM EDT
Indonesia says it will no longer formally announce bird flu deaths
By ROBIN McDOWELL
Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl died of bird flu last month, becoming Indonesia's 109th victim, but the government decided to keep the news quiet. It is part of a new policy aimed at improving the image of the nation hardest hit by the disease.

"How does it help us to announce these deaths?" Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Thursday, after confirming that the girl from southern Jakarta tested positive on May 13 and died one day later. "We want to focus now on positive steps and achievements made by the government in fighting bird flu."

Indonesia's decision could aggravate the World Health Organization, which waits to update its official tally of Indonesia's bird flu deaths until after they are formally announced by the government. The toll on its Web site stood at 108 on Thursday - accounting for nearly half the 241 recorded fatalities worldwide.

The country's health minister has clashed with WHO over bird flu before.

Supari stopped sharing bird flu samples with the global body in January 2007 after learning that some coveted data about the virus was being kept in a private database at a U.S. government laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and made accessible to only a handful of researchers.
(Cont.)

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 5:32 AM

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - Indonesia - Indonesia To Stop Announcing Bird Flu Deaths

WHO: Indonesia Agrees To Resume Bird Flu Notifications



# 2066


According to this article by Helen Branswell, a senior official at the World Health Organization has announced that Indonesia's Health Minister Supari has agreed to resume notifying the WHO in a timely fashion about bird flu cases and fatalities.

Hopefully this is good news.

Although the statement by Dr. David Heymann at the WHO that "the minister will continue - as she has been - notifying WHO . . . " doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence.


Some observers have felt that Indonesia has been very slow, and less than diligent, in reporting human bird flu cases for at least a year, perhaps longer.

As Crof so ably pointed out three days ago in Indonesia: The Penny Drops - Indonesia hasn't filed an OIE report on infected poultry since September of 2006.

Admittedly, Indonesia isn't the only country to fall behind in their reporting, and once a disease becomes `endemic' in a region, the reporting requirements are generally reduced to once every six months.

Additionally, we've seen promises retracted by Health Minister Supari in the past.

How many times has the impasse over the sharing of viral samples been declared solved over the past year?

I've lost count.

Still, in comparison to Supari's previous stance, this would seem a decided improvement. I'm sure it took a good deal of diplomatic skills on the part of the WHO to convince Supari to cooperate.


It will probably take some time before we can adequately assess just how cooperative Indonesia is being.


This report from Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press.

WHO says Indonesia has given assurances it will report bird flu cases

By Helen Branswell, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - A senior official of the World Health Organization says the global health agency has been assured Indonesia will continue to report human cases of, and deaths from, H5N1 avian flu as they occur.


The WHO had sought clarification from Indonesia after Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said last week that her country would in future only report H5N1 deaths sporadically, perhaps at six month intervals.


The suggestion was met with dismay and with warnings that Indonesia would be in violation of the International Health Regulations if Supari carries through on her threat.


That international treaty requires prompt reporting of cases of diseases such as H5N1 that have been designated as global health threats. Indonesia is a signatory to the treaty.


"We've received official notice at our WHO office in Jakarta that the minister will continue - as she has been - notifying WHO on confirmed infections under the International Health Regulations," Dr. David Heymann, assistant director general for health security and environment, said from Geneva.


"She's been clear ... that she has no intention of not conforming to the International Health Regulations. She knows what they are. She's been told what those regulations require."
(Cont.)

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 4:30 AM

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - Indonesia - Reporting Controversy

Supari : Indonesian Bird Flu Cases Down



# 2084



The following statements made by Indonesia's Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari might carry a bit more weight if Indonesia's track record of reporting human bird flu cases were better.


For more than a year Indonesia has withheld bird flu virus samples from the WHO, and many observers have felt that human cases have been routinely under reported.


Reading more like a public relations release than a news article, here is how Xinhua News is reporting the story.

Minister: bird flu cases in Indonesia down　　
www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-19 09:25:51

JAKARTA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Healthy Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said that in the last six months the number of cases of bird flu on human beings in Indonesia had declined significantly.


In the beginning of the second semester of 2008, the number of the bird flu cases on human beings had dropped, and the number has even reached the lowest compared with those in 2005, 2006 and 2007,the Antara news agency on Thursday quoted the minister as saying in Medan, capital of North Sumatra province.


The main cause of the decline in the bird flu cases on human beings is the fact that people have now become increasingly aware that one should do something as soon as he or she found out that he or she had the symptoms of being affected with this fatal virus Supari said on Wednesday.


At present each regional administration has a guidebook on bird flu for distribution to all layers of the society.


"Thank God, we already have a handbook on bird flu, and we also have the support from some other countries, including Australia, Germany, India, and China," she said.


Bird flu, which started in Indonesia in 2003, has killed 109 people in the country, making it the most affected country by bird flu in the world.

While no new details are offered, Minister Supari assures us that the number of bird flu cases in Indonesia are down, and she gives the credit to having a bird flu guidebook for the populace.

Perhaps.

Exactly how having a guidebook - and having more people recognize the symptoms of bird flu early on - would reduce the number of H5N1 infections isn't really explained.

You'd think, if everything else remains equal, better awareness would result in more human cases being reported.

Not less.

Sigh. I guess I keep looking for logic in all the wrong places.

posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 10:41 PM

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - Indonesia - Reporting Controversy

Indonesian Virus Sharing Awaits November WHO Meeting



# 2280



Indonesia has been playing hardball with bird flu virus samples now for about 18 months, releasing only a handful to the WHO, and only when it suited them. They are claiming property rights to the virus, and demand financial or `other' compensation for their use.


The silence over the past few months regarding human cases in that country, and their failure to make follow up reports to the OIE about animal cases for the past two years, only accents their recalcitrance.

Indonesia is playing a most dangerous game. The H5N1 virus is rife in that country, and the odds of a dangerous mutation appearing in that nation are not insignificant.

While there may be inequities in the current GISN (Global Influenza Surveillance Network) system, the lives of millions of people are potentially endangered over what is essentially a civil law matter.

It would, in this humble blogger's opinion, make far more sense for Indonesia to resume sending samples to the WHO while simultaneously filing a grievance with the International Court of Justice.

Indonesia could defend their claim for property rights before the World Court while scientists worked to prevent a pandemic. A win-win situation.

Not likely to happen, I know.

In November the WHO will hold an intergovernmental meeting where, once again, Indonesia's demands will be discussed. As stated in this Chinaview news article, Health Minister Supari is hopeful that organization will see the issue her way.

Indonesia hopes agreement on bird flu virus specimen to be settled

www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-05 10:00:08

JAKARTA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia hopes negotiations on the material transfer agreement for bird flu virus specimen could be finished in the inter-governmental meeting of WHO members in November, health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said.


Indonesia hopes the agreement could be made simple but able to accommodate the interests of the developing countries, Antara news agency on Friday quoted the minister as saying.


"We wish our property right to the virus would receive recognition and we had access to information on where the virus had been taken to and how it had been handled," she said here on Thursday.


She said the agreement must also cover deals on benefit sharing both financially or otherwise that come from the result of researches on specimen sent by affected countries.


Talks on mechanism of avian flu virus sharing was started early in 2007 after the Indonesian government protested the unfair mechanism of virus sharing and exchange of the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN).


Since then several rounds of meeting had been held by members of the World Health Organization affected by the H5N1 virus aimed at formulating the framework of a fair, transparent and equal virus sharing mechanism.


Indonesia is the bird flu hardest hit country with more than 100 people killed by the H5N1 virus. 　

Posted by FLA_MEDIC at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/09/indonesian-virus-sharing-depends-on.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2008-09-05T06:53:00-04:00">6:53 AM</abbr>

[sharon sanders]

Re: AFD - Indonesia - Reporting Controversy

Supari's Conspiracy Theories


# 2288




Today Lisa Schnirring of CIDRAP News gives us a detailed look at some of the conspiracy theories being openly espoused by Indonesia's Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari.

Minister Supari apparently believes that the west (that's us) routinely create and release deadly viruses to plague the inhabitants of poorer nations, just so we can sell them expensive vaccines and medicines.

Supari is using her beliefs to justify, in part, her decision not to release H5N1 virus samples to world health authorities.

I've just included the opening few paragraphs to Lisa's report. As always with CIDRAP reporting, it is well worth your time to follow the link to read the entire article.

Supari accuses rich nations of creating viruses for profit


Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer

Sep 8, 2008 (CIDRAP News) ? Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari, who is at the center of an international controversy over sharing of H5N1 avian influenza virus samples, recently claimed that developed countries are creating new viruses as a means of building new markets for vaccines, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report.


In February, Supari published a 182-page book titled Time for the World to Change: God is Behind the Avian Influenza Virus, which alleges that the United States intended to produce a biological weapon with the H5N1 virus and the World Health Organization (WHO) was conspiring to profit from H5N1 vaccines.


At a recent book discussion, Supari told the crowd that wealthy nations are creating "new viruses" that are meant to infect people in poorer nations in order to help drug companies sell more vaccines, according to a Sep 7 AFP report.


"The conspiracy between superpower nations and global organizations isn't a theory, isn't rhetoric, but it's something I've experienced myself," Supari told the crowd, according to AFP.


In early 2007 Indonesia announced that it had stopped sharing H5N1 virus samples with the WHO. The country based its action on what it saw as a lack of access to pandemic vaccines that are produced by pharmaceutical companies in developed nations from the shared samples.

(Continue reading . . .)

Posted by FLA_MEDIC at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/09/supari-conspiracy-theories.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2008-09-09T08:09:00-04:00">8:09 AM</abbr>