03/15/2010 (1:03 am)
AFD - Indonesia - Reporting Controversy
# 2049
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/
For many months newshounds have complained that local media reports of `suspect' human cases of bird flu are often never acknowledged by the Indonesian authorities. Many of these cases simply fall by the wayside, and we never find out what happened.
We've still occasionally gotten word of bird flu related deaths, but no one has much confidence we are hearing about all of them.
So the following announcement, while disturbing, doesn't really come as a shock.
Jun 5, 5:06 AM EDT
Indonesia says it will no longer formally announce bird flu deaths (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_GEN_INDONESIA_BIRD_FLU_ASOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-05-05-06-36)
By ROBIN McDOWELL
Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl died of bird flu last month, becoming Indonesia's 109th victim, but the government decided to keep the news quiet. It is part of a new policy aimed at improving the image of the nation hardest hit by the disease.
"How does it help us to announce these deaths?" Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Thursday, after confirming that the girl from southern Jakarta tested positive on May 13 and died one day later. "We want to focus now on positive steps and achievements made by the government in fighting bird flu."
Indonesia's decision could aggravate the World Health Organization, which waits to update its official tally of Indonesia's bird flu deaths until after they are formally announced by the government. The toll on its Web site stood at 108 on Thursday - accounting for nearly half the 241 recorded fatalities worldwide.
The country's health minister has clashed with WHO over bird flu before.
Supari stopped sharing bird flu samples with the global body in January 2007 after learning that some coveted data about the virus was being kept in a private database at a U.S. government laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and made accessible to only a handful of researchers.
(Cont.) (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_GEN_INDONESIA_BIRD_FLU_ASOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-05-05-06-36)
posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 5:32 AM (http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/indonesia-to-stop-announcing-bird-flu.html)
# 2066
According to this article by Helen Branswell, a senior official at the World Health Organization has announced that Indonesia's Health Minister Supari has agreed to resume notifying the WHO in a timely fashion about bird flu cases and fatalities.
Hopefully this is good news.
Although the statement by Dr. David Heymann at the WHO that "the minister will continue - as she has been - notifying WHO . . . " doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence.
Some observers have felt that Indonesia has been very slow, and less than diligent, in reporting human bird flu cases for at least a year, perhaps longer.
As Crof so ably pointed out three days ago in Indonesia: The Penny Drops (http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2008/06/indonesia-the-p.html) - Indonesia hasn't filed an OIE report on infected poultry since September of 2006.
Admittedly, Indonesia isn't the only country to fall behind in their reporting, and once a disease becomes `endemic' in a region, the reporting requirements are generally reduced to once every six months.
Additionally, we've seen promises retracted by Health Minister Supari in the past.
How many times has the impasse over the sharing of viral samples been declared solved over the past year?
I've lost count.
Still, in comparison to Supari's previous stance, this would seem a decided improvement. I'm sure it took a good deal of diplomatic skills on the part of the WHO to convince Supari to cooperate.
It will probably take some time before we can adequately assess just how cooperative Indonesia is being.
This report from Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press.
WHO says Indonesia has given assurances it will report bird flu cases (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/06/12/5862391-cp.html)
By Helen Branswell, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - A senior official of the World Health Organization says the global health agency has been assured Indonesia will continue to report human cases of, and deaths from, H5N1 avian flu as they occur.
The WHO had sought clarification from Indonesia after Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said last week that her country would in future only report H5N1 deaths sporadically, perhaps at six month intervals.
The suggestion was met with dismay and with warnings that Indonesia would be in violation of the International Health Regulations if Supari carries through on her threat.
That international treaty requires prompt reporting of cases of diseases such as H5N1 that have been designated as global health threats. Indonesia is a signatory to the treaty.
"We've received official notice at our WHO office in Jakarta that the minister will continue - as she has been - notifying WHO on confirmed infections under the International Health Regulations," Dr. David Heymann, assistant director general for health security and environment, said from Geneva.
"She's been clear ... that she has no intention of not conforming to the International Health Regulations. She knows what they are. She's been told what those regulations require."
(Cont.) (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/06/12/5862391-cp.html)
posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 4:30 AM (http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/who-indonesia-agrees-to-resume-bird-flu.html)
# 2084
The following statements made by Indonesia's Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari might carry a bit more weight if Indonesia's track record of reporting human bird flu cases were better.
For more than a year Indonesia has withheld bird flu virus samples from the WHO, and many observers have felt that human cases have been routinely under reported.
Reading more like a public relations release than a news article, here is how Xinhua News is reporting the story.
Minister: bird flu cases in Indonesia down (http://rss.xinhuanet.com/newsc/english/2008-06/19/content_8397876.htm)
www.chinaview.cn http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif 2008-06-19 09:25:51
JAKARTA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Healthy Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said that in the last six months the number of cases of bird flu on human beings in Indonesia had declined significantly.
In the beginning of the second semester of 2008, the number of the bird flu cases on human beings had dropped, and the number has even reached the lowest compared with those in 2005, 2006 and 2007,the Antara news agency on Thursday quoted the minister as saying in Medan, capital of North Sumatra province.
The main cause of the decline in the bird flu cases on human beings is the fact that people have now become increasingly aware that one should do something as soon as he or she found out that he or she had the symptoms of being affected with this fatal virus Supari said on Wednesday.
At present each regional administration has a guidebook on bird flu for distribution to all layers of the society.
"Thank God, we already have a handbook on bird flu, and we also have the support from some other countries, including Australia, Germany, India, and China," she said.
Bird flu, which started in Indonesia in 2003, has killed 109 people in the country, making it the most affected country by bird flu in the world.
While no new details are offered, Minister Supari assures us that the number of bird flu cases in Indonesia are down, and she gives the credit to having a bird flu guidebook for the populace.
Perhaps.
Exactly how having a guidebook - and having more people recognize the symptoms of bird flu early on - would reduce the number of H5N1 infections isn't really explained.
You'd think, if everything else remains equal, better awareness would result in more human cases being reported.
Not less.
Sigh. I guess I keep looking for logic in all the wrong places.
posted by FLA_MEDIC @ 10:41 PM (http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/supari-indonesian-bird-flu-cases-down.html)
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