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BIRD FLU NEWS:

Rate of bird flu deaths in Indonesia causes alarm

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1642346.htmSTORY

AM - Friday, 19 May , 2006 08:12:00

Reporter: Geoff Thompson

TONY EASTLEY: The World Health Organisation says human-to-human transmission of the bird-flu virus cannot be ruled out as the cause of an alarming cluster of human infections in Northern Sumatra.
20 people have now died of the virus in Indonesia this year.

While the Northern Sumatra cluster has not spread widely, bird flu experts are concerned by Indonesia's inability to contain it.

Geoff Thompson reports from Jakarta.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Five more bird flu deaths have been confirmed in Indonesia this week, meaning that more people are now dying of the virus in Indonesia than in any other country.

That stark truth prompted Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to appeal for international help yesterday, while addressing the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYNO: The stakes so high that the FAO must never cease reminding the international community to give full financial and technical support in the fight against avian influenza.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Particularly worrying is a cluster of seven mostly fatal human infections in Northern Sumatra.

Sari Setiogi is spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation in Indonesia.

SARI SETIOGI: It is true that what happened in North Sumatra is the largest cluster that we've ever had, both in Indonesia and globally. And every time there is a cluster case it will raise the suspicions that human-to-human transmission might have occurred.

However, as of yet, our investigation shows that there's no evidence of further spread of the virus beyond this family cluster.

GEOFF THOMPSON: A total of 31 people have now died from avian influenza in Indonesia. But what is frustrating health professionals is the fact that not a single source of infection has ever been confirmed for any of those deaths.

Yesterday, Indonesia's Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono reported that 10 pigs had tested positive for bird flu in the same village as the human cluster. Pigs are regarded as mixing vessels in which human and bird flu viruses can swap genes and potentially produce more easily transmissible mutations.

The pig test results need to be confirmed internationally. But an Australian bird flu expert who has worked in Indonesia for eight years, has an even greater concern.

Dr Andrew Jeremijenko says that some of the cluster patients were released back into the community before returning to hospital to die.

ANDREW JEREMIJENKO: This had been a test to see whether Indonesia could control a pandemic virus. Basically they just failed the test.

We now know it was a large cluster, there was possible human-to-human transmission and we have pigs testing positive.

Discharging a patient and then allowing him to come back a few days later when he was very, very sick and died is dangerous.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Bird flu has now also been confirmed in Papua, less than two hundred kilometres from the Australian mainland.

In Jakarta, this is Geoff Thompson for AM.