JAKARTA, 09 January 2006 - In Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, officials admit that “it’s very serious. Based on our research, the virus has spread all over the city.” In one province, a man was taken to the hospital when saying he had a high fever, the AP reports. He was then taken to isolation. However, he said he needed to get some personal belongings back at his home.
He left the hospital and never returned. Before leaving hospital care, he informed the staff that he had become ill after he had slaughtered his bird flu sick poultry. More than millions of birds have been killed in Indonesia due to the infection. Indonesia has not been all that open with some of its detail nor willing to “carry out mass slaughters, citing a lack of money. But affected farmers were Friday offered some compensation.”
In Indonesia’s 30 provinces, 23 have been found to have the H5N1 virus. Seven humans have died from the virus. The President stated to media last week that “domestic Tamiflu production was needed as the country’s current inventory was insufficient.” Even then, no one can prove that the mutant virus would be overcome with any vaccine now available. Scientists are working to locate such a vaccine; however, it is difficult to predict the constituency of the mutant virus and thereby difficult to finalize a vaccine to attack it successfully.
“Authorities Friday also destroyed 400 fowl in a residential area of Jakarta near the home of a young girl who died from the disease.”
Het 13 e slachtoffer is het afgelopen weekend overleden. Persoonlijk en dat is mijn mening zal het erger worden met een pandemie…? De hygienische voorzieningen zijn niet van dusdanig dat het een kleine moeite is voor de H5N1 virus om te verspreiden.
Jakarta Post
JAKARTA, 16 January 2006 - A 13-year-old Indonesian girl died of bird flu at the weekend while two others from her family have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, a health ministry official said on Monday, citing the results of local tests. If confirmed by outside laboratories recognized by the World Health Organization, the case would take total known deaths in Indonesia from the avian flu to 13 and the number who have had bird flu to 20.
“We found three positive bird flu cases in one family coming from Indramayu, West Java,” said the official, Hariadi Wibisono. He said the girl died in an Indramayu hospital while her 15-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother had been sent for treatment at a hospital in Jakarta designated to care for bird flu patients.
“A lot of fowls died around the neighborhood where they lived. But we don’t know yet whether these fowls were carrying the virus. We sent a team there to investigate this morning.” The H5N1 virus is not known to pass easily between humans at the moment, but experts fear it could develop that ability and set off a global pandemic that might kill millions of people.
The highly pathogenic strain is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, and has affected birds in two-thirds of the provinces in Indonesia, an archipelago about 17,000 islands and 220 million people. The country has millions of chickens and ducks, many in the yards of rural or urban homes, raising the risk of more humans becoming infected with a virus that is confirmed to have killed 79 people in six countries since late 2003.
This includes recent cases in Turkey, the first human infections outside East Asia. Experts say the H5N1 virus could become more active in the colder months in affected regions. And there are fears there could be more cases in China, Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia later this month during the Lunar New Year when chicken will be an integral part of family reunion celebrations.
JAKARTA, 17 January 2006 - A three-year-old boy died in Indonesia Tuesday only days after his elder sister died of bird flu according to a local test, a health official said. “The boy was suspected of having bird flu but the earlier test results were borderline. We need further tests to confirm the cause of his death,” Haraidi Wibisono, a director in charge of eradicating animal-borne diseases, told Xinhua.
He said the boy died during treatment at the Hasan Sadikin hospital in the West Java capital of Bandung, some 150 km south of Jakarta. His 13-year-old sister died over the weekend with local test showing she had H5N1 virus. Another elder sister is now being treated at the same hospital for developing bird flu symptoms. The World Health Organization has confirmed 12 birth flu deaths in Indonesia.
Er is vooralsnog geen negatief reisadvies. Waarom het niet nog nadrukkelijker in het nieuws is, ik weet het niet. Misschien moeten er nog meer slachtoffers vallen…