Indonesia has been experiencing avian influenza since two years ago in Java, but the government has been concealing information about the outbreak. This has enabled the disease to potentially spread worldwide as it is currently doing, according to Chairul Nidom, the microbiologist who first discovered the bird flu in Indonesia, as reported by the Washington Post on October 20.
When the avian influenza virus first appeared in Java in 2003, the Indonesian government did not recognize it as bird flu or any other type of virus. Nidom, who was then a professor at Airlangga University’s Tropical Disease Center, was invited to research and identified the virus as a strain causing bird flu that shared genetic similarities with a strain from China seven years prior.
However, leading companies in Indonesia’s poultry industry lobbied the government to keep this information confidential. At the end of January 2004, Nidom “took a risk” by informing the media about the outbreak, at which point the Ministry of Agriculture acknowledged the bird flu outbreak, although by then the disease had already spread beyond Java to Bali and Sumatra.
Last fall, after Vietnam and Thailand confirmed avian influenza outbreaks, Nidom organized a workshop that gathered leading researchers on bird flu from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture ordered a ban on foreign participants and reporters from attending the workshop.
Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, former head of Indonesia’s National Veterinary Agency, shared Nidom’s perspective on the issue.
When asked about the situation, Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono stated: “The problem is we do not want to publicize this too much as it will affect our poultry industry. Chicken prices will plummet.”
On the same day, October 20, Taiwan quickly proposed a meeting with Roche to request the rights to produce Tamiflu after the company announced it would consider allowing rival companies and governments to manufacture the drug under a permit for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla, known for being the first to produce a low-cost generic AIDS treatment, announced it is ready to do the same with Tamiflu.
Regarding the bird flu situation, Thailand confirmed an additional death, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 13. Indonesia reported two more suspected cases of avian influenza.
Taiwan recently intercepted a container containing 1,037 infected pet birds with H5N1 from a ship arriving from mainland China and immediately ordered the destruction of these birds.
On October 19, the World Health Organization reported that China had culled 91,000 birds around a farm in the northern region to contain a newly emerging outbreak.
In Europe, results from a laboratory in the UK confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus in the Danube basin in eastern Romania. In Russia, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that the H5N1 virus has infiltrated Tula Province, located 350 km south of Moscow. In Brussels, an official from the European Union indicated that bird flu may have spread to Macedonia.
TH.TÙNG – NG. DANH (According to AFP, CNN, BKP, Libération)
