Man Dies Of Bird Flu In Jakarta

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Man dies of bird flu in Jakarta

Zakir Hussain

The Straits Times

A 23-year-old man has died in Jakarta after contracting the bird flu virus, raising fresh fears of a resurgence of the dangerous strain in the region, just a week after another death in southern China.

The city authorities yesterday confirmed the death of welder Puguh Dwi Yanto late on Saturday night, and said they would conduct sweeping checks for birds in homes and backyards to prevent the spread of the virus.

In Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta, where the man lived, health and husbandry officials slaughtered and destroyed some two dozen birds and burned chicken coops, as North Jakarta Mayor Bambang Sugiyono looked on.

"People understood the seriousness of the matter, and did not mind parting with their birds," the mayor told reporters.

The city authorities also urged residents to cooperate and not hide birds they were rearing illegally, as they announced plans for five new poultry slaughter locations to curb the spread of the virus.

Poultry-rearing for food in and around homes remains fairly common in the capital even though a ban has been in place for more than two years now.

The welder came down with a high fever over the New Year and was admitted to a hospital, where doctors reportedly diagnosed his ailment initially as a stomach infection. He died while being transferred to a Tangerang hospital in the south which has a special unit for bird flu patients.

Dr Dien Emawati, head of Jakarta's Health Department, told a press conference yesterday that the man was suspected of having been infected by the virus as he fell sick after one of his pigeons died.

Local media reported his mother as saying he had been cradling the pet pigeon.

The family has some 30 pigeons, eight chickens, two wild ducks and two other birds, and has been given Tamiflu to prevent the spread of infection.

The victim is the 151st Indonesian to die of the virus since 2005, according to World Health Organisation data. Since 2003, some 577 bird flu cases have been detected worldwide, resulting in 340 deaths, including the latest.

Indonesia has a particularly high fatality rate, with 183 cases but only 32 survivors.

On Dec 31, a 39-year-old bus driver died in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where thousands of chickens had been culled after three birds tested positive for the H5N1 virus two weeks earlier.

Vietnam last week culled more than 2,500 chickens on a farm in the Mekong Delta area in an effort to contain an outbreak.

The latest death in Indonesia comes weeks after a senior health official warned that Indonesia remains a hot spot for bird flu, in spite of the number of infections decreasing in recent years. Last year, the country recorded nine bird flu deaths, down from a peak of 45 in 2006.

Dr Rita Kusriastuti, director of animal-borne infectious disease control at the Health Ministry, said late last month that chickens being kept by many residents in their backyards were at risk of transmitting the H5N1 virus.

"It's not surprising that up to now we have had to stay alert on bird flu and even declare our country as a bird flu hot spot, as we have so far not managed to implement good husbandry systems," she said.

Jakarta, with about 10 million people densely packed into an area of 660 sq km - just slightly smaller than Singapore - has seen 40 deaths in the past seven years.

Yesterday, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo ordered a thorough investigation into the death, and suggested that health and agriculture agencies work together to sterilise locations deemed at risk.

Microbiologist Chairul Anwar Nidom of Airlangga University in Surabaya, whose team recently produced Indonesia's first bird flu vaccine seed, told The Straits Times that the city government needs to enforce the ban on live poultry in the capital more stringently.

"How many wet markets can you still find live birds at?" he said. "Given the risk of the virus being transmitted from humans to animals and our high rates of infection, such practices should not continue to be tolerated."

-- ANN 2012-01-10