Indonesian bird flu policy begets frustration

That’s because Indonesia has stopped publicizing fatalities immediately, part of a campaign to shift focus instead to successes in battling the disease in the hardest hit nation. The Health Ministry said Friday it would start announcing deaths on a monthly basis — not several times a year as earlier implied — clearly spelling out its new strategy for the first time.

The development was welcomed as a step in the right direction.

Health workers and residents said the government’s information slowdown had left them confused and frustrated. It took The Associated Press a week to track down and confirm the June 3 death of Usman’s wife, Susi Lisnawati, which raised the country’s toll to 110.

Though Lisnawati was suffering from classic symptoms of the disease — breathing difficulties, coughing and high fever — the 34-year-old was not kept in isolation during her two days of hospitalization. Family members said they gave her a traditional Muslim burial, washing and shrouding the body with their bare hands, before placing it in the ground without a casket.

“I’m terribly scared, I need to know what the test results were,” Usman, a 44-year-old tailor and father of three. “How else can I protect my family?”

Indonesia, which has tallied more human deaths than any other country, is seen as a potential hotspot for a pandemic because of its high density of people and large number of backyard chickens. The virus remains hard for people to catch, but scientists fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, potentially killing millions across the globe.

The World Health Organization, which has been engaged in a bitter yearlong dispute with Indonesia over the sharing of virus samples, said Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari promised to keep it informed about new deaths and did not appear to be violating international health regulations with her new policy.

“Indonesia has agreed to continue notifications to WHO .... they have never said they would not do that,” said David Heymann, the U.N. agency’s top flu expert, adding it does not matter if it takes several weeks to publicize the country’s official toll “as long as the virus is known about and handled properly.”

But for now, the lack of transparency has forced people to rely on word of mouth and rumors. It has also raised fears that deaths could be covered up, especially because the government has been exclusively responsible for carrying out genetic sequencing needed for diagnosis and risk assessment since its standoff with WHO.

Relatives of victims are still shown official bird flu test results almost immediately and Usman’s case appeared to be an aberration.

But when asked for an explanation Friday, the Health Ministry said test results had come back negative and would be delivered to the family within days. Nyoman Kandun, a senior ministry official, later confirmed the tests came back positive.

Neighbors, too, were confused after seeing bird flu investigators visit Usman’s house, taking blood samples from family members and handing out the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, but only to his youngest son and a child living next door. Residents were asked if they had backyard fowl.

1|2|Next Page>>

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email