# 3893
It isn’t clear how the replacement of Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari with Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih will affect the flow of Information out of Indonesia, but there are hopes that things will improve over the coming months.
Indonesia hasn’t filed an OIE (World Organization For Animal Health) report on animal outbreaks in years, and hasn’t officially acknowledged any human infections H5N1 since late in 2008.
Still, by all accounts, the H5N1 virus remains uncontrolled in poultry and is a serious threat across much of that archipelago nation. Although official reports have ceased, we still get newspaper stories of bird die offs, poultry culling operations, and occasional suspected human infections.
These reports, unfortunately, tend to disappear into a black hole of government denial, and we rarely hear of them again.
Ida, at the Bird Flu Information Corner - a joint endeavor between Kobe University, Japan and Institute of Tropical Disease, Airlangga University, Indonesia – brings us translations this morning of a pair of reports of suspected human infections from the local media.
Bukittinggi, West Sumatera ::: Hospital treats two bird flu suspect patients
October 27, 2009Bukittinggi, West Sumatera – After an idle, bird flu human suspects patients are reported from Bukitttinggi. Achmad Mochtar hospital (RSAM) in Bukittinggi is treating two bird flu H5N1 suspect patients. The condition of patients are improving.
Patients are BPT (7), – resident of Jalan Sukma Payakumbuh Utara – admitted to hospital on Thursday (22/10), and FR (5) – resident of Padang Data Payakumbuh – admitted to hospital on Saturday (24/10), confirmed Vice director of Medical and Treatment Service of RSAM, dr Khairul Said.
Both patients were referred from Adnan hospital in Payakumbuh which is one of bird flu referral hospital.
Currently, patients are treated at isolation unit of RSAM Bukittinggi and receiving Tamiflu.
Both patients have contact history with suddenly dead birds around their neighborhoods.
Asahan, North Sumatera ::: Six-year-old bird flu suspect patient
October 27, 2009Asahan, North Sumatera – Six-year-old bird flu suspect patient, Ayub, a resident of Dusun I Desa Air Genting, Kabupaten Asahan is being treated at Abdul Manan Simatupang, North Sumatera.
Patient is reported having fever subsequent to contact with suddenly dead animals. Numbers of animal were reported dead of unknown cause around patient’s neighborhood. Instead of Ayub, no other high fever in human cases is reported from the area.
Livestock Service of Asahan has done further investigation of H5N1 possibility to the dead animals, and resulted negative.
For H5N1 confirmation, Health Service of Kabupaten Asahan sent blood and serum samples of patient to be sent to Ministry of Health laboratory in Jakarta. Laboratory confirmation will be issued within 2 weeks.
This time of year we expect to see an uptick in H5N1 reporting, simply because the virus has historically spread more easily during the winter and spring. While most of our attention is focused on the H1N1 virus, it is important that we not ignore other threats.
Thankfully, people like Ida at BFIC and the scores of newshounds on the Flu Forums, are keeping a close watch on the situation for us.
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