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The WHO is urging that Indonesia stockpile their new vaccine, and wait until a pandemic erupts to use it. The Indonesians are intent on using it now, to forestall a possible pandemic.
With just 2 million doses, for a country of 235 million people, the amount on hand may be inadequate for either use.
Up until now, Indonesia has been using Tamiflu, often dispensed liberally, in order to contain outbreaks of the H5N1 virus. Dispensaries in villages have handed out tens of thousands of courses of the drug to anyone complaining of `pilek', cold or flu symptoms.
Exactly how Indonesian officials intend to use this vaccination is unclear at this time.
Traditional `ring vaccination', where people who live near or are in close contact with someone with a known H5N1 infection is possible, but vaccinations generally take 2 weeks or longer to convey immunity, and so that technique may not be particularly effective in containing an outbreak.
With just 2 million doses, prophylactic vaccinations of the general public wouldn't seem feasible, although they could certainly be used for select high risk individuals.
According to this article, Health Minister Supari needs to calculate how best to deploy this vaccine.
Indonesia ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines
09:12, October 04, 2007
Indonesia, the hardest-hit by bird flu, has been ready to use its own anti-bird flu vaccines on human, after the country completed its clinical test, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in Jakarta Wednesday.
Minister Fadilah ensured that a priority would be given to the area which had suffered human clusters on avian influenza.
But, she said that a calculation was still needed to determine in detail how to use over 2 million doses vaccines that it has produced in cooperation with the U.S.-based drug maker Baxter.
The minister said that the clinical test of the vaccines was already complete in September.
"The vaccines are valid, (they) can be used now," she told Xinhua at the State Palace here.
Some parameters and rules for the application of the vaccines would be made soon, said Fadilah.
"We still need some approaches. We need to make calculation again," she said.
The health authorities would observe and watch closely which area was proper to be prioritized for using the vaccines, said Fadilah.
She said Karo regency in North Sumatra province would have the priority because it suffered bird flu cluster in April last year, and eight people were killed.
H5N1 virus spread from human-to-human between a small number of people within a family in the province. Indonesia declared the cluster as limited human-to-human transmission.
The cluster also occurred in Tanggerang, an outskirt city of the country's capital of Jakarta.
Indonesia has decided to use its own vaccines directly, ignoring the suggestion of the World Health Organization (WHO) to stockpile the vaccines and be used when a pandemic occur.
So far, the viruses have killed globally 196 out of 324 infected people, most of them in Indonesia with 86 fatalities and 107 cases.
Experts fear that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus could mutate in a certain level that can make them transmittable among humans that can cause a pandemic where millions of people can be killed.
Huge territory, traditional way of rising chickens on back yard and lack of obedience of provincial administration in implementing the Jakarta decision to stop the virus spread, are among the obstacles in fighting the bird flu in the country.
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