Indonesia on high alert after two children hospitalised for bird flu

TWO children have been hospitalised in Indonesia with suspected bird flu, and the government put the country on high alert yesterday as it struggled to contain a virus that has killed four people.

Authorities closed the city’s main zoo after tests showed some exotic birds had been infected with avian flu.

Officials also said the cash-strapped government had little money to carry out a mass culling of infected poultry or birds.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed four Indonesians, including a 37-year-old woman who died in Jakarta a week ago. The virus has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has also spread to Russia and Europe.

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said: “It’s a high alert. Every region is on alert so if at any time it occurs in remote areas, we are ready.”

But she added that the government had not declared a state of emergency. She earlier said two children were being treated in a Jakarta hospital after initial tests showed they had bird flu, while a third child had shown symptoms and was under observation.

The high-alert status means the government can order people suspected of having symptoms to be hospitalised.

Indonesia sends blood tests from all suspected bird flu cases to Hong Kong for confirmation.

Commenting on the latest developments, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representative in Indonesia, Georg Petersen, said: “It confirms what we have thought for a while, that the H5N1 virus is widely spread in Indonesia.”

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said officials had identified bird flu in 19 exotic birds at Jakarta’s popular Ragunan zoo.

“The Jakarta governor has ordered the closure of the zoo for 21 days following reports the birds were detected with the virus,” he said, adding that officials planned to conduct tests on around 2,100 birds at the zoo.

He said infected birds that were on the list of protected species would be isolated and given medical treatment initially, while others will be killed immediately.

“We have reached a conclusion that we must be prepared to live side by side with bird flu,” Apriyantono said.

He later said his ministry had requested more funds to handle the outbreak, but said the government had little money to conduct a mass slaughter of poultry.

“Depopulation will need a huge amount of funds. This year, we need more funds for avian influenza to do research, surveillance and selective depopulation,” he said.

Mr Petersen said the WHO would support recommendations by the World Organisation for Animal Health and by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for a mass cull in Indonesia.

The WHO said last week that bird flu was moving toward becoming transmissible by humans and that the international community had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.

Most of the people killed in Asia since 2003 caught the virus from infected birds.

Health experts say the greatest worry is that H5N1 could mutate and become transmissible between people.