- CIDRAP News
9-20-5
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- 3 workers from Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo have been hospitalized
with suspected H5N1 avian influenza, increasing the number of suspected
human cases in Indonesia to as many as 7, according to news services. The
zoo was closed yesterday [19 Sep 2005] after 19 captive birds tested positive
for the H5N1 virus. The ailing zoo workers include a 28 year old guide
and a 39 year old vendor, the Associated Press (AP) reported in a statement
attributed to I Nyoman Kandun, Indonesia's director general of communicable
disease control. A Reuters report today [20 Sep 2005] said a 3rd person
from the zoo, also a food worker, was hospitalized late last night. The
latest cases apparently bring the number of suspected case-patients in
Indonesia to 7. But Reuters quoted Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah
Supari as saying only 6 people have been hospitalized.
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- On 16 Sep 2005, officials confirmed that the death of
a 37 year old woman from Jakarta a few days earlier was due to H5N1 avian
influenza virus infection. As of yesterday [19 Sep 2005], news services
were reporting that 4 children had been hospitalized with suspected cases.
They included 2 girls, aged 3 and 6; a 7 year old; and a 9 year old boy
who is related to the 37 year old victim. Initial tests on 2 children were
positive for H5N1 virus, Reuters reported. Blood samples from the patients
were being tested in Hong Kong, the report said.
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- Yesterday [19 Sep 2005], the government declared that
the avian flu situation was an "extraordinary" health incident.
That declaration, which expires in 21 days but can be renewed, allows for
forced hospitalization of people who have possible avian flu symptoms,
the AP said. 44 hospitals have been designated to treat avian flu patients.
Those patients will receive free medication, Supari told the AP. Government
officials sought to maintain calm today [20 Sep 2005], balancing expressions
of confidence that they could handle the situation with statements aimed
at educating people about the problem and its seriousness. The state of
high alert "is to calm people, not to bring more panic," Reuters
quoted Supari as saying.
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- Haryadi Wibisono, a director of disease control at the
country's health ministry, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), "This
is a serious problem for Indonesia and the whole world, and therefore it
should be dealt with seriously." Ragunan Zoo, the chief zoo in bustling
Jakarta, was to be closed for 3 weeks to allow for testing of animals and
workers. Of the 500 zoo employees, 143 have been identified as being at
high risk for exposure to the virus, the Jakarta Post said today [20 Sep
2005]. The city has a population of 12 million, with another 9 million
in outlying towns, according to Nature magazine.
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- Besides the 37 year old woman, other reported cases of
avian flu in Indonesia have included a 38 year old man and his 2 daughters,
who died in July 2005, plus a farm worker who tested positive for antibodies
to the virus last March, though he had not been sick. However, the World
Health Organization (WHO) recognizes only the 37 year old woman and 38
year old man as laboratory-confirmed cases. Indonesia's spate of possible
cases comes as the WHO is warning that the world would have little time
to respond to signs of an emerging flu pandemic, AFP and Reuters reported
today [20 Sep 2005]. "There's a very short time period -- 2 to 4 weeks
between [after] the onset of the 1st case -- in which containment is possible,"
Hitoshi Oshitani, a WHO communicable disease expert, said today in an address
to the WHO's Regional Committee for the Western Pacific in Noumea, New
Caledonia. In comparing pandemic influenza to SARS, Oshitani said, "The
pandemic virus is much more difficult, maybe impossible, to contain once
it starts."
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- http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/sep2005avflu.html
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at:
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- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
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- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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