Indonesia's Yudhoyono May Declare Bird Flu a National Disaster
By Berni Moestafa
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may declare bird flu a national disaster, enabling the government to set aside money from its budget to combat the virus that has killed at least 63 Indonesians.
``Bird flu has now entered the category of national disaster,'' National Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta told reporters in Jakarta today. ``The allocation for funding will come from the central government. The handling of this will no longer be ad hoc, we will do this comprehensively.''
Governments across Asia are intensifying surveillance for the virus, which resurfaced in domestic poultry and wild fowl in South Korea, Thailand, China, Egypt, Nigeria, Hungary and Vietnam in the past two months.
Last Updated: January 31, 2007 01:23 EST
