Karo, Indonesia is back in the bird flu news. Another village in Karo district was the scene of the largest human bird flu cluster to date (eight cases, seven of whom died). Human to human transmission was grudgingly acknowledged by WHO as occurring in this case, although Indonesian health authorities still resist it. Now it is the site of seven more suspect cases, including at least one family cluster.
"Whether it is a new cluster or not, that must be scientifically proved," said Runizar Ruesin, head of the bird flu information centre at Indonesia's health ministry.
He said the seven were admitted to the local Kaban Jahe hospital, with three referred to a state-run hospital.
The latter three are children - two siblings aged 10 and six and their 18-month-old neighbor.
"I am still waiting for the result of the tests," Ruesin said. (Reuters via Thanhnien News)
Dead chickens were reported in the area but no other exposure history has been given. The health, welfare and agriculture ministers traveled to the area but were greeted by hostile villagers who ripped off the ministers' masks and forced them to remove their protective suits. The planned cull of local birds had to be called off and the army was needed to restore order. "This is the first time that we have had a rejection of bird culling," the agriculture minister was quoted as saying. This is a bald faced lie, since resistance to culling has been a hallmark of the Indonesian situation from the outset. One issue is the great attachment of Indonesians to their birds and another is certainly economic. The government is paying too little compensation.
The three children were hospitalized with influenza symptoms, in stable condition. They are now in the provincial capital hospital after being moved from a village unit. One of the children is said to have pneumonia. Four others from the same area are being similarly moved to the provincial hospital, but no details on those cases were available. (Forbes)
It's still August but the flu season seems already upon us. What it will bring is anyone's guess. One thing for sure, however. The bird flu threat is far from over, despite widespread press reports to the contrary.
Addendum: South African TV says six of these cases haave been cleared on the basis of tests done by the Government of Indonesia and the US Naval Lab, NAMRU2. There is no information on the seventh case. Another likely death has been reported in Thailand, so bird flu continues unabated, despite the provisional good news from Karo.
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There are stories over on NewsNow that state the Indonesian government lowered the number of suspected cases from seven to six. There's also a story of the dead 9 y.o. girl and a story confirming the 61 y.o. Thai woman has H5N1.
Any comments on media reports that Indonesia will no longer be sending samples to Hong Kong for confirmation (and will be using the CDC instead)?
Also translated into Brazilian-Portuguese (sorry: I still don't know how to place "trackbacks". I just keep the links to the original post, and a general one to this blog).
Brazil has - so far - been spared from bird flu. But the poultry industry (a big one, here) is taking desperate measures to keep it afar.
"Four others from the same area are being similarly moved to the provincial hospital, but no details on those cases were available."
Hopefully these four aren't moved in coffins.
Henry: Haven't been connected all day. On the road (literally) and just got to an internet equipped hotel. Will look around to see what I see and whom I hear from.
It seems the Indonesian government is upset with the WHO, so it wouldn't be surprising if the CDC is now the preferred provider of confirmatory diagnosis.
The CDC is also a WHO-affiliated lab. However, CIDRAP is reporting that Bloomeber is reporting that Indonesia has pledged to release all H5N1 sequences. The timing of this announcemnt and the switch to the CDC for confirmation is curious. Hong Kong has reported a few failures to confirm (which were quickly reversed), and there have been issues on release of the sequences or even information about the sequences when Hong Kong was asked. There really is a fair amount of politics mixed into these scientific issues.
The death in Thailand was an 8 or 9 year old girl. The family kept about 10 chickens. Chickens in the neighborhood died, but the family's chickens did not. So I'm suspecting this will turn out to be a negative--so far all the human strains have retained lethality for poultry, I'd think the family birds would have been stricken.
Indonesia just freed their sequences. They are public at Los Alamos. First announced at FluTrackers