The government warned on Wednesday that the current outbreak of bird flu could become an epidemic as two more children died after showing symptoms of the disease.
"It's not an epidemic yet, but sporadic cases in parts of Jakarta. If things worsen it could become an epidemic," Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said.
She was speaking to reporters after announcing that an initial local test on a five-year-old girl, who died on Wednesday after suffering from bird flu symptoms, was negative for the virus. She said more local testing needed to be done, while blood samples would also be sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation.
In another possible case a two-year-old girl died at Jakarta's Christian PGI Hospital after a high fever and respiratory problems.
Four Indonesians are confirmed to have died since July from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu. Nine others are now being treated at Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Jakarta. The authorities are still waiting for the test results.
Siti said that more victims could emerge as the authorities had not been able to determine the sources of the virus that has infected the victims.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said that the government would launch a mass cull of chickens in "highly infected areas," but acknowledged that as of Wednesday no area had been declared highly infected.
"We will allocate (funds for the mass culling) whatever it takes, if it has become a necessity," he told The Jakarta Post.
The minister fired on Wednesday the ministry's director of animal health control Tri Satya Putri Naipospos for allegedly failing to monitor the spread of the deadly virus.
The current bird flu outbreak in Indonesia has raised international concern over possible further outbreaks of the disease, which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.
Georg Petersen, the WHO's representative in Jakarta, said many foreign experts were now helping Indonesia, including a high-level delegation from the United States.
"Definitely the whole international community is very much present," Petersen told Reuters.
The WHO is also working with the government to source new stocks of the antiviral drug Tamiflu -- which can help against infection -- from India to bolster local stocks, he said.
"It's not very much, it's rather puny. They definitely need some more," Petersen said, adding that stocks being rushed from India were less than 1,000 doses.
Indonesia only has a supply of 10,000 Tamiflu tablets.
The U.N. World Health Organization last week warned bird flu was moving toward a form that could be passed between humans and the world had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.
The government on Monday put the bird flu outbreak under extraordinary status to focus attention on the outbreak in the world's fourth most populous nation.
Besides Indonesia, bird flu has killed 44 people in Vietnam, 12 people in Thailand and four in Cambodia.
Taken from The Jakarta Post
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