January 9, 2006

Indonesia to set up advanced bird flu lab
 

Indonesia's government would build an advanced bird flu laboratory that reaches international standards, in response to the increasing number of human cases in the country, said Hariadi Wibisono, the Ministry of Health's director of animal-borne disease eradication.

Wibisono said the laboratory would be classified under bio-security level three, which means researchers would study infectious agents that could potentially cause lethal diseases, including bird flu.

The government has already proposed a budget for building the facility, which would match the World Health Organization's laboratory based in Hong Kong, he added. Indonesia currently sends blood samples from people suspected to have died of bird flu to the WHO facility for confirmatory diagnosis.   

Indonesia's existing bio-security level two laboratory tests for agents that pose only moderate risk to people, Wibisono said.

However, the government would continue to send blood samples to the WHO laboratory even after the advanced facility is completed, as part of international cooperation against bird flu, he added.