Avian Influenza in South-East Asia Region, 2010
Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza were reported in 2010 among poultry in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Myanmar and Nepal. Strategic culling and poultry vaccination policies have been adapted and implemented by Indonesia. Other Member States of the Region have carried out depopulation of poultry during outbreaks. So far, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand have reported laboratory confirmed human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) as shown in Fig. 1. Indonesia reported 171 human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) with 141 deaths since July 2005. Thailand has reported 25 cases with 17 deaths from 2004 to 2006. Myanmar reported its first human case in 2007 and Bangladesh reported its first human case in 2008. Both cases in Bangladesh and Myanmar have since recovered.
The South-East Asia Region has reported a total of 198 human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) with 158 deaths since 2004. The region has contributed 39% of global human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) with a case-fatality rate of 80%.
Indonesia continues to report human cases with a high case-fatality rate since 2005, which is a matter of public health concern. The case-fatality rate of reported human cases in Indonesia was 78% in 2010 compared with 90% in 2009. The number of reported human cases is progressively decreasing in last four years. All confirmed cases were reported from provinces in the Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Bali. On average, a larger number of cases are detected in January than other months of the year. The majority of human cases were due to direct contact of humans with infected poultry or contaminated environments. There are a few instances where limited human-to-human transmission of the virus could not be ruled out, but there have not been large clusters of human cases. There were 12 clusters of avian influenza infection in Indonesia, but relatively few of these occurred after 2006 and none till in 2010.
