September 21, 2005

Indonesia says bird flu outbreak epidemic as another victim dies

Indonesia's bird flu outbreak, which has now claimed the life of a five-year-old Indonesian girl, can now be considered an epidemic, the country's health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said on Sep 21.

The young victim, Rizka Hardianto died early morning on Sep 21 after being admitted into a Jakarta hospital on Sep 20 for respiratory ailments. Her death brings the bird flu death toll from to five, even as six other patients are being treated in hospitals for respiratory ailments.

Health officials said they suspected she had contracted bird flu, and had sent blood samples to Hong Kong for laboratory tests.

Indonesia is now also under the new "extraordinary incident" status where suspected bird flu patients can be forced into being admitted into hospitals. Free medicine will also be given to patients suspected of infection and public places could be closed under the new law.

Indonesia will now carry out mass poultry culling in areas with a high incidence of bird flu cases, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said on Sep 21.

So far, there have not been any areas identified for culling yet. Apriyantono added too that funds for the culling programme would not be a problem.