November 15, 2005

 

Indonesian government plans anti-H5N1 avian flu task force

 

 

Indonesia's government planned to set up a special task force to prevent the spread of H5N1 avian influenza, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said Tuesday.

 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would head the task force, which would also include provincial governors and the health and agriculture ministers, Supari told reporters.

 

"The task force will be discussed with (provincial) governors at the (presidential) palace later today," Supari said, without elaborating.

 

Supari said the creation of the task force was a response to pressure from neighbouring countries, that Indonesia intensifies its efforts to control an outbreak of H5N1 that World Health Organization data indicated has infected nine people and killed five since July.

 

Indonesian health officials are currently investigating an additional 44 suspected H5N1 human infections, Supari said.

 

The task force plan came a day after Yudhoyono said he wanted Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) to grant a Tamiflu production license to a domestic drug manufacturer. Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, has shown promise in treating human infections of H5N1.

 

Yudhoyono said domestic Tamiflu production was needed because Indonesia's current inventory of 75,000 doses of the drug "is not sufficient."

 

Yudhoyono said Indonesia's government would also enlist the military, students and non-governmental organisations to take part in H5N1 avian influenza outbreak prevention measures, particularly in rural areas.

 

International health authorities cautioned that Indonesia rivalled Vietnam and Cambodia, as a potential weak link in the global effort to prevent or contain a possible future outbreak of a more deadly human variant of H5N1.

 

Indonesia's main islands of Java and Bali had high and extremely dense chicken populations that made growth in human H5N1 cases inevitable, WHO Representative for Indonesia Georg Petersen said in September.