Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Boy's death signals return of bird flu
Adisti Sukma Sawitri and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A lack of awareness of the government's ongoing campaign to eradicate bird flu is being blamed for the reemergence of the disease following the death of a boy Wednesday after being treated for three days in an East Jakarta hospital.
The boy was among six people with similar symptoms who were treated at the Persahabatan Hospital. They were all from the same neighborhood.
Rohana Manggala, the assistant for public welfare to the Jakarta governor, said that instead of reporting or burning it, a resident threw a dead duck into a river in the densely populated Kalideres area of West Jakarta, where the 14-year-old boy resided.
"People still don't understand how to deal with this disease," she said.
An official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that a new and more virulent strain of the virus had developed in ducks.
All poultry within a one-kilometer radius of the boy's house has now been destroyed.
The latest death means that 58 of the 76 people who contracted the disease in Indonesia have died. Up to Wednesday, the last recorded bird flu fatality was in Tangerang on Nov. 28, while Jakarta had its last human fatality -- a 12-year-old boy -- in October.
Separately, Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said that in spite of the latest death from bird flu the government would not resort to "extraordinary" measures to combat it.
"Our present methods -- monitoring, vaccination and the culling of infected birds -- have been successful. We have even won praise from international agencies for our approach," Aburizal told a press conference Wednesday.
"We will take no further special measures," Aburizal said.
Aburizal also said that the government considered the fight against bird flu to be a success.
"Of 33 provinces, only 14 are not yet free of bird flu," he said.
Initiated by the National Commission for Bird Flu Control and Influenza Pandemic Prevention, a nationwide campaign, Beat Bird Flu, was launched in September.
A communications officer from UNICEF, Iwan Hasan, who was involved in an October survey to check on the efficacy of the campaign, said it was too early to conclude that it had failed as it had only been underway for three months.
"Our survey shows that 97 percent of 508 respondents in Greater Jakarta and Garut in West Java are at least aware of the TV campaign," he said, adding that an AC Nielsen survey found that 120 million people had seen the TV advertisements.
"Behavioral change takes time," he said, while pointing out that the survey had also recommended more direct approaches to poultry breeders.
In a separate press conference, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said the mortality rate was high among bird-flu victims who were detected and treated late.
"Anyone infected by the virus will likely die within three days," Siti said, adding the rate of survival was only 20 to 25 percent for cases that were detected late.
Siti insisted that culling poultry across the country was the one and only way of preventing the further spread of bird flu.
"However, we cannot prevent every single person from having contact with poultry in his or her environment."
Worldwide, more than 150 people have been killed by the H5N1 virus since late 2003. The bird flu outbreak has triggered the mass slaughter of tens of millions of birds. Fears that the virus could mutate into a more virulent form that could be transmitted human-to-human remain high. (06)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070111.@01&irec=0
See this post for another reference to a new strain in ducks:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=57799&postcount=25
Adisti Sukma Sawitri and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A lack of awareness of the government's ongoing campaign to eradicate bird flu is being blamed for the reemergence of the disease following the death of a boy Wednesday after being treated for three days in an East Jakarta hospital.
The boy was among six people with similar symptoms who were treated at the Persahabatan Hospital. They were all from the same neighborhood.
Rohana Manggala, the assistant for public welfare to the Jakarta governor, said that instead of reporting or burning it, a resident threw a dead duck into a river in the densely populated Kalideres area of West Jakarta, where the 14-year-old boy resided.
"People still don't understand how to deal with this disease," she said.
An official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that a new and more virulent strain of the virus had developed in ducks.
All poultry within a one-kilometer radius of the boy's house has now been destroyed.
The latest death means that 58 of the 76 people who contracted the disease in Indonesia have died. Up to Wednesday, the last recorded bird flu fatality was in Tangerang on Nov. 28, while Jakarta had its last human fatality -- a 12-year-old boy -- in October.
Separately, Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said that in spite of the latest death from bird flu the government would not resort to "extraordinary" measures to combat it.
"Our present methods -- monitoring, vaccination and the culling of infected birds -- have been successful. We have even won praise from international agencies for our approach," Aburizal told a press conference Wednesday.
"We will take no further special measures," Aburizal said.
Aburizal also said that the government considered the fight against bird flu to be a success.
"Of 33 provinces, only 14 are not yet free of bird flu," he said.
Initiated by the National Commission for Bird Flu Control and Influenza Pandemic Prevention, a nationwide campaign, Beat Bird Flu, was launched in September.
A communications officer from UNICEF, Iwan Hasan, who was involved in an October survey to check on the efficacy of the campaign, said it was too early to conclude that it had failed as it had only been underway for three months.
"Our survey shows that 97 percent of 508 respondents in Greater Jakarta and Garut in West Java are at least aware of the TV campaign," he said, adding that an AC Nielsen survey found that 120 million people had seen the TV advertisements.
"Behavioral change takes time," he said, while pointing out that the survey had also recommended more direct approaches to poultry breeders.
In a separate press conference, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said the mortality rate was high among bird-flu victims who were detected and treated late.
"Anyone infected by the virus will likely die within three days," Siti said, adding the rate of survival was only 20 to 25 percent for cases that were detected late.
Siti insisted that culling poultry across the country was the one and only way of preventing the further spread of bird flu.
"However, we cannot prevent every single person from having contact with poultry in his or her environment."
Worldwide, more than 150 people have been killed by the H5N1 virus since late 2003. The bird flu outbreak has triggered the mass slaughter of tens of millions of birds. Fears that the virus could mutate into a more virulent form that could be transmitted human-to-human remain high. (06)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070111.@01&irec=0
See this post for another reference to a new strain in ducks:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=57799&postcount=25
