Foreign observers to witness bird flu-handling exercise in Indonesia

[Shiloh]

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/23/content_8037874.htm

Foreign observers to witness bird flu-handling exercise in Indonesia
www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-23 23:39:03


JAKARTA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- At least 42 representatives of international agencies and foreign governments are to witness a bird flu handling exercise in Bali on April 25-27, sources close to the event's organizers said on Wednesday.

"They will be able to see from close quarters the seriousness with which the Indonesian government, including the Bali provincial administration, is handling bird flu," Antara news agency Wednesday quoted the sources as saying in Denpasar, capital of Bali province.

The simulation would involve related agencies and ordinary people and be staged in three districts and one municipality in Bali. It would also take place at Tabanan district's general hospital, Ngurah Rai airport and Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar.

Observers would also come from professional organizations, various central government agencies, referral hospitals and public health offices in all other Indonesian provinces,

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari is slated to open the demonstration in Jembrana District on April 25.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Foreign observers to witness bird flu-handling exercise in Indonesia

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33237820080425?sp=true

By Lenita Sulthani

JEMBRANA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia, which has the world's highest human death toll from bird flu, launched an exercise on the resort island of Bali on Friday to test its ability to deal with a pandemic triggered by the virus.

The three-day simulation, the country's biggest ever test, involves about 1,000 people, including police and military personnel, some wearing white protective suits and going from door to door in the test village in the west of the island.

"This is to show to the world that we are ready, that we are prepared," said Nyoman Kandun, director-general of communicable disease control at the health ministry.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said last month that Indonesian efforts had done little to control bird flu and it needed more help in controlling the virus.

Under the exercise, poultry was culled and buried in infected areas and the village is due to be quarantined on Saturday.

Indonesia has suffered 107 human deaths from bird flu, out of 132 confirmed cases, compared with 240 deaths globally, according to data from the World Health Organisation.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting the H5N1 virus, which is endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that people can easily catch and pass to one another, in which case infections would soar, causing a pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.

"The keyword is preparedness... because we do not know where, when and how the pandemic will occur," Kandun said.

On Sunday, as part of the exercise, Bali airport will also be equipped with body-heat detectors to screen potential infections among travellers in and out of the island.

The Sanglah hospital in Bali has been designated to treat bird flu cases, while patients with other diseases at the hospital will not be allowed to leave until the quarantine period ends.

An Indonesian health official said this week that in the case of a pandemic an estimated five million Indonesians could be infected with the virus, with between 5 to 10 percent of those infected dying.

Indonesia has also been locked in a dispute with the international community over sharing bird flu virus samples, which is regarded as vital to developing vaccines.

U.S. Health Secretary Michael Leavitt said this month that he had stressed the need for transparent sharing of the virus during talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

But Indonesia has refused to freely share virus samples with the WHO until a new global mechanism is in place to ensure that specimens will not be used for commercial purposes without the country's approval.

Jakarta says it wants guarantees from richer nations and drugmakers that poor countries would get access to affordable vaccines derived from their samples.

? Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Foreign observers to witness bird flu-handling exercise in Indonesia

Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB2SZX9N0iuouw3Mp8r6SIEdUjAQ
Indonesia runs massive bird flu drill

3 hours ago

TUKADDAYA, Indonesia (AFP) ? Hundreds of Indonesian villagers and health workers took part in a massive drill here Friday to prepare for a potentially devastating outbreak of human-to-human bird flu.

The largest bird flu drill ever held in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus, involved the simulated outbreak of a pandemic which experts say could rapidly spread across the globe killing millions of people.

"This is the biggest drill in Indonesia. The objective is to test the preparedness of bird flu officials to manage an outbreak in case it happens," health ministry disease control chief I Nyoman Kandun told reporters.

The three-day drill began at Tukaddaya village outside Jembrana, 80 kilometres (48 miles) west of Denpasar on the resort island of Bali, with a man presenting himself to a clinic with the symptoms of deadly avian influenza.

Health workers initially think he has been in contact with infected chickens -- until now the main way the virus has been caught by humans -- but the man explains that he has not been handling birds at all.

The virus is traced to another man in the village and health workers have to confront their worst fear -- the first outbreak of bird flu being transmitted from human to human.

The village is sealed off, birds and ducks are slaughtered and officials scramble to find and isolate other victims as they present themselves.

Villager I Wayan Nerken, 51, whose role in the drill was to report the sudden "death" of one of his chickens, said the exercise was "very useful."

"So far the information that we've got about bird flu has been limited to what we've seen on television. We don't really understand (how to act) when an infection happens," he told AFP.

"Before this I didn't know that we're not supposed to handle the carcasses when chickens die suddenly."

Some real residents of Tukaddaya fled as the simulation began, not out of concern for bird flu but just at the sight of all the officials, journalists and foreign observers descending on their quiet village.

More than 50 foreigners including 14 diplomats are taking part in the exercise, which is being covered by more than 50 local and international journalists.

So far the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus has shown no ability to spread efficiently and sustainably among humans, but experts fear it could mutate into such a form at any time, triggering a devastating global pandemic.

Indonesian experts believe up to 60 million people could be infected in Indonesia alone in the event of a human-to-human outbreak.

Indonesia is the country worst hit by bird flu, with 107 people known to have died from the disease, 13 of them this year.