Flu Burung

The first cases of the bird flu were registered in private yards. How is one supposed to take 15-20 chickens from an old lady and send them for processing? There is no such technology, no schemes on how to act yet. Besides, the virus can spread during transporting. It is easier and safer to destroy all the entire livestock of infected birds. Such practice is used in case of any dangerous infection. For example, when there was a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in England, several million cattle were destroyed, even though after proper treatment the foot-and-mouth disease virus dies and the meat can be eaten.

The bird flu outbreaks among people were registered in South East Asia: in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and China. Most likely, they caught infection via direct contact with infected poultry and not because they ate its meat. A 35-year-old man from Vietnam recently died of bird flu. Even though he ate chicken meat with 9 members of his family the day before, he was the only one to become infected. He is known to have lived 200 meters away from a poultry market. Since 2003, a total of 92 people in Vietnam have fallen ill, 42 of whom—with lethal outcome. A girl, who caught a bird flu infection through direct contact with chickens, died on November 5, 2005 in Indonesia. The total number of the bird flu victims in Indonesia is 10 people.

According to some data collected by the WHO, as of 11.09.05, the total number of confirmed bird flu cases among humans was 125, including 64 cases with lethal outcomes. No bird flu cases among humans have been registered in Russia.

Posted by Ewin at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Bird Flu can be especially severe for small children. Severe headaches, vomiting, mental impairment (the manifestations of encephalitis - inflammation of brain tissue) are among the main symptoms.

The early diagnosis of A-type flu can be made on the basis of the following clinical symptoms:
Fever combined with difficulty breathing and cough;
Diarrhea (without foreign substances and blood in feces);
Absence of conjunctivitis and hives.

However, the combination of fever with cough and difficulty breathing, and sometimes with diarrhea is characteristic for many acute respiratory diseases. When diagnosing the disease, it is always taken into account, if the sick person contacted domestic or wild birds. The final diagnosis of A-type flu can be made only after a special laboratory study of the sick person’s blood. If the Bird Flu is suspected, the sick person must be immediately hospitalized.

Posted by Ewin at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments

I have filed a story on bird flu with a PRI radio program called The World, which is produced at WBUR in Boston. This is the story which took me to Medan, to Kaben Jahe, and to Sumbul for a look at the culling and bird flu containment operations there. I’ll let the story speak for itself – please let me know what you think!

Click Here to listen.

Please feel free to ask questions.

Posted by Ewin at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

First, I want to address a couple of safety concerns. I’m back in Jakarta now, but it’s true that I was deep inside an area with a history of H5N1 infection among birds and humans for the story. It’s also true that this is still a very rare disease among humans, and that when it is transmitted from birds to humans, it’s through close contact with sick birds. People who have contracted the virus have done so largely through handling them or being in an environment where their blood or dander can get into the respiratory system. I was very careful not to get too close to birds, and I wore an antibiotic mask and took other sanitation measures to keep myself from dangerous contact.

It’s also true that Jones Ginting is part of a cluster of people who contracted a mutated version of the virus from contact with each other. This is an extremely rare case, and scientists think genetic disposition in that family in combination with the mutation may have enabled the unusual vector. Ginting is not considered to be contagious, and the mutated version of the virus is considered to have died out with its last victim.

I understand some of the concerns I’m hearing from my family, and I just want to let everyone know I wasn’t reckless about exposure.

Having said that, I also have to add that I saw some frighteningly inefficient and unsanitary (not to mention inhumane) practices in the handling of the birds during mass culls, and it raises a lot of questions for me about the effectiveness of this strategy. But I’m ahead of myself.

Terus.

The first night I arrived in Kaben Jahe, rumors were circulating that lab tests from five chickens in the area had come back positive for the H5N1 virus. When I arrived at the local health department command post, it was teeming with Indonesian soldiers, police and brown-uniformed medical staff. The driver I had hired from Medan slipped his black Toyota SUV into a parked convoy of military and government vehicles. We waited in the car for an hour while the police and soldiers mustered in formation, passing out protective masks and gloves.

Finally, the group spread out into five teams to cover the five affected areas. Their orders were to kill and collect every domestic bird in a one kilometer radius around the five positive test sites across the district. The birds were killed in the streets in front of their owners. It was brutal, inefficient, and unsanitary in my opinion. Children gathered to watch in curiosity, and came well within the risk area from what I saw. The whole affair was a real nightmare.

Posted by Ewin at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments