Indonesian
health officials have downplayed concerns over a fresh outbreak of avian
influenza which has killed some 160,000 reared ducks since September 2012.
Indonesian health officials have
downplayed concerns over a fresh outbreak of avian influenza which has killed
some 160,000 reared ducks since September 2012.
“So far no Indonesians have been
infected by the new clade [virus group] of the H5N1 virus,” Tjandra Yoga
Aditama, the director of disease control and public health at the Health
Ministry, told IRIN.
“The outbreak has only affected
ducks. There have been no known cases in humans,” said Muhammad Azhar,
coordinator of the Avian Influenza Disease Control Unit. “We have taken
necessary measures to control the outbreak.”
More than a dozen subsets
of the H5N1 virus have been identified – with numerous variants within
each clade. Although new to Indonesia, clade 2.3.2 H5N1 has been circulating
across Asia for several years, say experts.
Reared ducks began dying on
Indonesia’s populous Java Island in September, with the disease spreading to 80
villages in 12 of Indonesia’s 34 provinces. Affected ducks show clinical
symptoms such as torticollis, paralysis, seizures, incoordination, and sudden
death.
Most poultry kept by Indonesians
are chickens; only a small minority keep ducks.
“The origin of the infection was
apparently uncertified imported ducks,” said Emil Agustiono, head of the
National Commission on Zoonosis. “But luckily we have discovered the vaccine
[for poultry] and will start production in February. For now we’re using the
old vaccine and it’s still effective.”
The government needs at least
another 25 million doses of the H5N1 clade 2.3.2 vaccine, and will compensate
farmers affected by the outbreak, though the amount of compensation has not
been decided, he added.
The Health Ministry’s Aditama
said many countries had reported the presence of clade 2.3 and there had been
eight known bird flu cases in humans caused by the strain – three in Bangladesh
and five in China.
“So far Indonesia has not seen
infection from ducks to humans or bird flu cases in humans caused by clade 2.3,
but I expect that generally the medium of infection is similar to that of clade
2.1,” he said.
Health officials have advised
that control activities in humans had not changed with the new clade, he said.
“Data on antiviral sensitivity is
limited from the human cases, but there is no reason to expect a change.”
Government response
In response to the outbreak,
Agustiono said the government was strengthening surveillance and tightening the
movement of poultry between provinces to stem the outbreak.
“The spread of the virus is
epidemiologically controllable and we’re doing what we can to stop it,” he
said, adding: “This outbreak has disrupted the animal husbandry sector and more
importantly, is a public health issue.”
Indonesia stopped importing
poultry from Australia in December following a bird flu outbreak there, he
said. However, there has been no ban on imports of certified ducks from other
countries.
About 60 million Indonesians keep
poultry, including ducks, in their homesteads. Indonesia’s animal husbandry
sector is worth US$2 billion, government statistics show.
Agriculture Minister Suswono, who
like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said the outbreak was not yet an
emergency.
“According to our data, 160,000
ducks have died and compared to the population of 50 million reared ducks
that’s a small number,” he told reporters.
Indonesians wary
Humans in Indonesia have been
more affected by avian influenza than in any other country: Of the 189
confirmed bird flu cases since 2005, 157 were fatal.
On December 20, the World Health
Organization (WHO) said sporadic human cases reported that month in countries
with known H5N1 virus activity in poultry were within the expected range.
“No onward sustained
human-to-human transmission was reported,” it said.
Since the H5N1 virus first
appeared in 2003, there have been 610 laboratory-confirmed human cases globally
– 363 of them fatal – with Indonesia seeing the largest number of deaths, according to WHO.
Globally, H5N1 has killed or
forced the culling of more than 400 million domestic chickens and ducks, and
caused an estimated $20 billion of economic damage. It was eliminated from most
of the 63 countries infected at its peak in 2006, the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization reports.
Source: IRIN;
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