JAKARTA, 22 September 2005 — A bird flu outbreak that has killed at least four people in Indonesia could quickly turn into an epidemic, the health minister warned yesterday, as another two children suspected of having the virus died.
The girls, ages 5 and 2, had symptoms of the disease and authorities were awaiting their lab test results. Nine other people have been admitted to Jakarta’s infectious disease hospital with symptoms of the disease, the deputy director said.
The government scrambled to calm public fears, announcing plans for mass culls of chickens in infected areas and firing the country’s chief of animal health control for allegedly failing to control the bird flu outbreak. “If things worsen it could become an epidemic,” Health Minister Siti Fadila Supari told The Associated Press.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, killing at least 63 people and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.
Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds. But the World Health Organization has warned that the virus could mutate into a form that can easily spread among humans, possibly triggering a global pandemic that could kill millions.
Indonesia has reported scores of infections in chicken flocks across the sprawling country, but in the past has said it could not afford to carry out mass culls — something the United Nations suggests is the best way to prevent the virus’ spread.
Yesterday, the government reversed course.
“If we declare one area highly infected, we are going to do a mass slaughter,” said Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, adding farms in which 20 percent of poultry were infected with H5N1 would qualify.
The ministry’s director of animal health, meanwhile, told Dow Jones Newswires she had been dismissed for allegedly failing to control Indonesia’s outbreak of avian influenza.
“I was fired this morning,” said Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, adding that her successor could be appointed as early as tomorrow.
