The head of the World Organisation for Animal Health warned in April 2006 that Indonesia had become a critical risk point for H5N1 bird flu in Asia, citing a large number of uncontrolled infection sites and a direct link between infected poultry and human cases. Bernard Vallat made the remarks in a Paris interview.
Indonesia ranked second globally in human bird flu deaths since 2003, after Vietnam. By early April 2006, 24 Indonesians had died and nine more were infected; the H5N1 strain had killed more than 100 people worldwide.
A planned campaign to vaccinate 300 million birds had been sharply curtailed. The government could fund only 120 million vaccine doses from its 2006 budget, well short of the 600 million doses the full program required.
Vallat cited the country's fragmented island geography and highly decentralized government as key obstacles. "Without massive international support," he said, controlling the virus was unlikely in the short or medium term.
By contrast, Thailand and Vietnam had eliminated H5N1 in animals and reported no outbreaks in the three preceding months. Thailand deployed a 900,000-person reporting network down to the village level; Vietnam ran a mass poultry vaccination drive, then shifted to targeted culling of infected flocks.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2006, in its own words.