It is feared bird flu could become more frightening

M. Azis Tunny, THE JAKARTA POST, RANTEPAO, TORAJA | Sat, 04/04/2009 10:21 AM

There is a need to raise awareness of bird flu because of a real threat: It could turn into something much more frightening than the H5N1 virus.

The frightening thing would be if the virus caused a pandemic if and when it became able to spread among humans, Coordinator of Surveillance and Monitoring at the National Commission on Bird Flu Control and Awareness on Influenza Pandemic (Komnas FBPI) Heru Setijanto said Friday.

Setijanto said Indonesia was currently ranked highest in the world in the number of deaths from bird flu, and was unprepared as to how to deal with a pandemic.

“The incubation period of the virus is very fast and deadly when contracted by humans. We are

not ready to face a pandemic if the situation arises,” Setijanto told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a national seminar on a Bird Flu Pandemic Response Simulation in Toraja, South Sulawesi.

He said Indonesia was ill-equipped to face the bird flu pandemic because training was only provided so far to personnel at government ministries and agencies.

“When it turns into a pandemic, it becomes a multi-sector problem and would involve every sector. We are unprepared as of now, especially for other sectors to [cope with] the epidemic,” he said.

According to Setijanto, the bird flu virus will always mutate and this is a cause for grave concern.

When contracted by humans, the incubation period of the H5N1 virus could cause death rapidly, in as little as five days.

Indonesia so far remains on top of the world chart with the highest number of deaths from H5N1.

Data at the Health Ministry showed 121 of the 145 patients diagnosed as infected with the virus had died, a very high fatality rate.

He added a bird flu pandemic could claim many lives and that 30 percent of the world’s population could be at risk.

In Indonesia, said Setijanto, a bird flu epidemic from the H1N1 virus once took place in Toraja. The disease, then termed a mysterious breathing disease, reportedly claimed 210,000 lives.

Head of the Makassar office of the United Nations International Childrens’ Education Fund (UNICEF) Purwanta Iskandar told the Post that bird flu should not be taken lightly.

The disease has been recorded over the past 100 years and has claimed millions of lives throughout the world, including in Indonesia. For example, in Toraja in 1918, about 10 percent of the local population reportedly died from lung disease.

“Experts have said that it is highly likely that we will experience it again in the near future, although the exact time remains unclear. Our assumption is that a pandemic is very likely to infect 30 percent of the population,” said Purwanta.

In the framework of preparing in anticipation of a pandemic, Komnas FBPI has worked together with UNICEF, the Canadian government and the South Sulawesi provincial administration to help organize the national seminar on a Bird Flu Pandemic Response Simulation in Toraja from April 1 to April 4.