# 2089
Emmy Fitri is a journalist for the Jakarta Post who has often voiced deep concern over Indonesia's bird flu policies. Her editorials have not spared Health Minister Supari in the past.
Today is no exception.
I've only included the opening salvo. Please follow the link and read the entire editorial while it remains available online.
Believe me, it's worth it.
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It seems like deja vu. In the past, Indonesians saw the New Order government in constant denial over touchy issues like the number of people with HIV/AIDS, deaths caused by the disease and, most importantly, what the government was doing to address the problem.
When AIDS becomes widespread it is heavily stigmatized. And the public does not seem to be moved by campaigns for preventive measures, and there is a very strong tendency to cover up the reality. As the old saying goes, the chickens come home to roost. Now we have to deal with the results of mistakes that we made in the past.
These days, the chickens are running again, and we are reverting to past patterns in facing bird flu.
After withholding bird flu virus samples from the World Health Organization, which earned her special mention as a national hero, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has decided to withhold information on deaths caused by the virus -- H5N1 -- as part of a new policy to improve the image of the country hardest hit by the disease.
And what we get is confusion. We've lost the death count. It could be 109, 200 or more.
No one knows for sure how many people have died of this disease or where the virus has hit? Moreover, do not expect to learn what abilities the virus has developed because it is free-ranging, unobserved, on the loose, or let loose.
Officials at the Health Ministry are also in the dark. "We're not supplied with updates on bird flu cases in humans anymore. Try tomorrow, I can ask around," a ministry official replied last week to a query on the latest death toll.
Even worse, the usual standardized procedure for treating a suspected case of bird flu reportedly has not been performed since the minister decided no longer to publicize human cases of bird flu. The procedure includes placing the suspected patient in an isolation room during treatment, requiring doctors and nurses to wear protective masks and gloves and the distribution of antiviral drugs to close family members of the patient. In the past, suspected bird flu patients were not charged a rupiah for treatment, medicine and even for coffins if they did not survive.
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