Avian Patterns a Mystery: Indonesia

In a previous article a few days ago I mentioned that Indonesian pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturers Biofarma were going all out to make a vaccine for the bird flu virus.

How can they achieve this without knowing the pattern of spread the virus is taking. The Health Ministry said that government and scientists were still trying to figure out the mystery over the bird flu spread. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the H5N1 virus has mutated in one of the seven family clusters in Indonesia but did not evolve into a more transmissible form.

It has as yet to spread to the golden shores of Bali, but people on the island still worry of its economic affects as well as the loss of life as an article in the JP suggests.

Although his hometown has never seen bird flu, I Putu Widya is dismayed by the fact that Indonesia is one more death away from being on a par with Vietnam as countries with the world's most H5N1 fatalities.

What worries Putu is that he feels nobody has explained why the deadly virus is difficult to contain and why it kills people selectively.

"I am so confused why some people die instantly due to bird flu and why others don't. That worries me" said the 27 year old employee of a guest house in Ubud, Bali.

Bali is among four provinces that still have not seen human fatalities. The highly pathogenic virus had infected over 16 million chickens in 29 provinces.

Critics have said research to uncover the mystery was too slow leaving the public worried over the fact that the country continued to count more bird flu deaths. The 2005 State of the Environment report confirmed the government's slow response to the H5N1 outbreak. It said the H5N1 outbreak among poultry had actually taken place in 2003 but the Agriculture Ministry only announced it on Jan. 25 last year.

The Indonesian government said it could not afford to compensate farmers for millions of infected chicken across the nation saying it could only allot Rp 300 million this year meaning that it could only pay for 30,000 culled fowl.

An official with the National Commission on Bird Flu said none of the research was able to show exactly how to stop the virus from spreading. But the official, who asked not to be named, acknowledged that research carried out by an animal health expert with Airlangga University in Surabaya, Chairul A. Nidom, exposed credible information.

As for yours truly I will still be visiting places where there are chooks, go to the local markets as usual and visit my Balinese friends who have farms.