December 6, 2005

US bird flu laboratory may stay in Indonesia

Indonesia may allow a US navy laboratory investigating bird flu and other infectious diseases to continue operating in the country, despite the government earlier saying it would have to close by year-end, a senior health ministry official said Tuesday.

I Nyoman Kandun said discussions were underway with US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2, or NAMRU-2, "to determine if a new memorandum of understanding that is beneficial to both countries can be reached." He did not elaborate.

The government had earlier said that the laboratory, which has been operating in Indonesia for more than 30 years, would have to cease its activities when its contract expired on Dec 31.

US embassy spokesman, Max Kwak, said he had not "received formal communication from the government of Indonesia" about the status of the laboratory, but would not comment further.

The NAMRU-2 laboratory was set up in 1970 to investigate infectious diseases of military importance for the US navy and the rest of the Department of Defense.

In recent months, it has been used for initial analysis of samples drawn from suspected bird flu patients in Indonesia.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia since 2003 and jumped to humans, killing at least 68 - eight of them in Indonesia.