Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Indonesia have probed
the possibility of human transmission of bird flu in Indonesia's West Java
province after local test showed three persons and scores of fowls were infected
by bird flu virus, Health Ministry and WHO official said here Friday.
On Thursday, two persons living in the same district with the three, were
admitted to a hospital in Bandung, the capital of the province for suspicion of
having avian influenza, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said,
adding that hundreds of chickens suddenly died on bird flu in the district
recently.
"The tests (of possible human transmission) are being conducted," Supari told
Xinhua.
She admitted that there were still many poultry raised on backyard infected
by the H5N1, swarmed about the yard in the district, which could transmit the
virus to human.
Director at the ministry Nyoman Kandun said that three persons from Garut
district of the province, a 9-year-old girl, who died on Tuesday, a 6-year-old
girl and a 17-year-old man, who were recovered, were positively infected by the
avian influenza based on the local tests.
He said that the three persons had contacted with fowls, as chicken and ducks
around their area were positively infected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.
"A team comprising experts from WHO, Indonesian agriculture ministry, health
ministry and bird flu prevention agency, has been sent (to the infected area),"
he told Xinhua.
The death of the 9-year-old girl marks the country's 45th H5N1 fatality out
of 59 cases, according to the health minister.
The WHO technical officer Steven Bjorge said that the organization had sent
one bird flu expert along with those from the ministries of health and
agriculture.
"As long as the virus circulate in the bird, there will be some still over
into human," he told Xinhua.
Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono admitted that the virus was
difficult to be totally eliminated among poultry due to the country's huge
territory and large amount of back yard chicken farm.
"Remember, that Indonesia's territory is large, there are 32 millions
families raising chickens, those the problem," he told Xinhua.
Regarding to the case in Garut district, he said that it was because "the
virus still exist."
He said that his ministry had immediately responded on the emerging of the
bird flu cases in the district, as it had earlier prepared for the possibility
of the appearance of such case.
His ministry "has depopulated about thousands," of poultry in the district
soon after the case appears, he said.
"Now in every region we have a quick respond teams, the team of surveillance
and respond," said Anton.
Experts have said that the number of fowl culled and inoculated by the
Indonesian health authorities lags far behind the total infected, which can not
cut the chain of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus transmission.
Indonesia has become the focus of international, after the finding of the
biggest cluster in Karo regency of North Sumatra province, that killed seven of
people linked by blood.
Indonesia has said that it could not rule out the possibility of human
transmission in the vast archipelago country.