Re: INDONESIA - Java, 09/20+
Re: INDONESIA - Java, 09/20+
West Java to up fight against bird flu
Yuli Tri Suwarni and Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, Semarang
Oct 4, 2006
West Java province has dropped out of a special commission to educate the public about bird flu and will improve its existing working team instead, an official says.
Provincial health office head Yudi Prayudha said the decision was taken after the province was declared the country's worst affected by the H5N1 virus.
Health Ministry data shows that out of the country's 52 deaths from bird flu, 19 came from West Java.
Yudi said making "paper" policies was less important than increasing operations in at-risk areas.
"What is the use of a decree on the establishment of a special commission? What we need is to intensify our work in the field," Yudi said.
The establishment of the national commission is currently being worked out in a meeting by agriculture, health and education ministry officials and provincial representatives.
Yudi said he did not care what the outcome of the meetings was.
What is most important is an aggressive public campaign, possibly involving school children, on the dangers of the virus, he said.
Yudi said he had done his best to disseminate information about the dangers of bird flu but the results had not been positive.
Even doctors and nurses were not taking the problem seriously and were not immediately treating patients showing bird flu symptoms, he said.
"Just look at IJ (a bird flu victim), who died at a private hospital without getting the necessary medication after being treated for four hours there," he said.
IJ's younger brother died five days later at the Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung.
Yudi said the local administration had not yet allocated any special fund for handling bird flu infections in the province.
Meanwhile, three new suspected bird flu patients were admitted to the Hasan Sadikin Hospital during the weekend. Twenty three patients have so far been declared positive with the virus in the province.
Meanwhile in Semarang, Central Java, the virus is believed to be rife in poultry in Lebdosari hamlet.
Totok Sutanto, the head of the Semarang Agriculture Office's animal unit, said the birds infected with the virus would be culled to prevent it from spreading.
"We will soon cull the infected chickens while waiting for laboratory tests from the chicken blood we took," Totok said. The likely infection was discovered following the deaths of dozens of chickens belonging to a villager, he said.
Officials arrived at the site a day after the disease was reported, Totok said.
Despite the find, work went on as normal at Rejomulyo, Semarang's biggest chicken market.
"Every day, up to 500 chickens are slaughtered here," a worker, Gito, said.
A major bird flu outbreak took place in Central Java in 2004 when nearly 8.7 million chickens died from the disease or were culled, local data said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061004.G01
)