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WHO on the ground, culling finished in Air Batu village

A report from the news organization Kompas, translated by CurEvents.com poster Dutchie, gives us the slightest glimmer of an update on the situation in Air Batu.  Air Batu is part of the province in North Sumatra, Indonesia, that has snapped the world out of its collective pandemic fatigue.

First, the recap: Three people are dead, reportedly buried before samples could be taken to test for H5N1 infection.  Thirteen people are in hospital, taking Tamiflu.  Two of the thirteen were moved to a more secure isolation ward in Medan, the provincial capital.  Poultry were dying all over the village, and the Indonesian government moved in quickly, culling every bird within a kilometer of the suspected outbreak's center.

What comes next is a machine translation of the news story:

WHO is Monitoring Bird Flu in Air Batu

The Head of the Health Section of the Province North Sumatran Candra Syafii in Medan, on Friday (8/8), said a team from the Organisation of the Health of the World (WHO) descended to monitor the development of the case of bird flu in Air Batu. (bold Dutchie)

Some of the team's members saw directly the patient in RSUP Adam Malik, Medan, another part was in the Air Batu Village, Kecamatan Air Batu, Asahan.

They, said Candra, held investigation and the monitoring of the development of the illness (surveilans epidemiology). The team will be in North Sumatra until this case could be handled. (bold Dutchie)

In the meantime, the Section Head Veteriner Dinas Peternakan North Sumatra Nurdin Lubis said, the extermination of the poultry has in the location been finished.

The team destroyed the poultry, especially in the radius one kilometre from the discovery of the positive case of the virus attack H5N1 in the village. ” We also has sprayed disinfectant in the pen and the
settlement of the resident that we thought as the place of the development of the virus ,” he said. (bold mine)

The official of the combination, said Nurdin, continued to give the socialisation.


Metro TV News, Indonesia, reported this (hat-tip Solitare):

In other the side, Kebun Village apparatus 39 established the command post of the bird flu complaint. Since yesterday, the command post has received the complaint 73 from 1,409 residents who admitted to suffering the sign of flu burung. (bold mine)


From AFP, this latest update:

MEDAN, Indonesia (AFP) - Hundreds of chickens and ducks have been slaughtered to contain a suspected bird flu outbreak in Indonesia as 13 people with flu-like symptoms await laboratory results, officials said Friday.

Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) had arrived in the affected village in North Sumatra to help investigate the possible outbreak and the sudden death of three residents last week, a provincial health official said.

"They will be in the village of Air Batu for two days to investigate the source of the suspected bird flu virus in the area and to check on the death of three people in the village," the official, Suhadi, told AFP.

Thirteen people have been hospitalised with fevers and respiratory problems, two of whom, a baby boy and a seven-year-old girl, were still in a bird flu isolation unit at a hospital in the provincial capital Medan.

Adam Malik hospital spokesman Sinar Ginting said the two children in isolation had shaken off the symptoms.

"The two patients with suspected bird flu have recovered and are in normal condition. But as we haven't received results from the laboratory they remain in the isolation room," he said.

Local officials said work was continuing to sterilise the village.

"We have taken measures since Tuesday when we found strong indications of bird flu virus in some 100 chickens and ducks in several places in Air Batu village," local husbandry office chief Oktoni Eryanto said. (bold mine)

At least 400 birds have been slaughtered and burned, and officials are continuing to spray backyard coops with disinfectant, he said.

"We don't need to send samples from the poultry to a laboratory because it's pretty clear that the cause is the bird flu virus," he said. (bold from  Kassy, CurEvents.com poster and hat-tip recipient).

So, if we are not too presumptuous, here are the latest details: 

  • There is a stong belief that bird flu was/is in Air Batu; and that the Indonesian government, expert at identifying (if not reporting) bird flu, did not wait for test results before moving to kill every bird within a kilometer of the suspected epicenter of the outbreak.
  • Someone has actually identified a suspected epicenter of the outbreak - and it is a home.
  • Three are dead, thirteen are in hospital, and as many as 73 others are complaining of flu-like symptoms. This is out of a village of 1,900 people.
  • The WHO was allowed in by the Indonesian government to find out what in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a-going on down there. Good sign.
  • The WHO will be there for awhile.

Reader Comments (6)

Hi Scott,

Has the WHO ever sent experts to another bird flu location before? This seems serious and scary...

SQ

August 8, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSugarquill

Yes, Routinely done whenever it appears there is suspicion of multiple human infections, and usually at the request of the host country. WHO went to Pakistan last year, for example, to investigate H2H there. Thanks for writing!
Scott

August 8, 2008 | Registered CommenterScott McPherson

According Reuters news alert, thirteen people earlier H5N1 suspected - including two children at Medan hospital - tested all negative for bird flu. The alert report declaration done by I Nyoman Kandun of Health ministry communicable diseases control unit. The post at FT: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=172983&postcount=110

August 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterironorehopper

Don't 4get when humans are given Tamiflu they may test negative for BF. So even if they are negative,they may be false negatives.

August 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterHolliegh

Yes. But two patients at Medan Hospital may suffered by a form of self-limiting pneumonia. It is not stated that every type of pneumonia in Indonesia is caused by H5N1. Other pathogens are out there, sometimes hard to grow even in an advanced lab.

August 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterironorehopper

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