Indonesia Runs Large Scale Bird Flu Drill

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 25 Apr 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Indonesia is running a large scale drill simulating an outbreak of human to human bird flu that involves thousands of villagers, health workers and government officials, rehearsing for a potential pandemic. The drill started today, Friday 25th April, and is scheduled to run for three days.

Human to human transmission of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has not yet been officially recorded, but experts say it is just a matter of time before the virus mutates into such a form and kills millions of people worldwide.

Of the total number of laboratory confirmed H5N1 human cases and deaths reported worldwide since 2003, between a third and a half of them have been in Indonesia, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

On the 17th of April, the WHO updated the worldwide and country by country figures, showing a total of 381 cases and 240 deaths, with 132 cases and 107 deaths in Indonesia. Viet Nam is the next highest, with 106 cases and 52 deaths reported.

Health experts in Indonesia estimate that up to 60 million Indonesians will become infected if the virus starts to spread from human to human.

So it is no surprise that Indonesia is preparing for a possible human to human pandemic. According to an AFP report, disease control chief of Indonesia's health ministry, I Nyoman Kandun told the press:

"This is the biggest drill in Indonesia. The objective is to test the preparedness of bird flu officials to manage an outbreak in case it happens."

Subhash Salunke, of the WHO, told Reuters that:

"This is a very important event from the perspective of public health."

"It will certainly help better equip Indonesia in the event of a pandemic. But other countries struggling to contain bird flu outbreaks can and will learn from this exercise as well," he added.

The drill, which runs for three days, started earlier today in the Bali village of Tukaddaya, situated about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the capital, Denpasar. The simulation started when a man went down to the village clinic with symptoms of the deadly bird flu virus.

The scenario plays out with "reasonable" assumptions. At first, doctors think the man has been infected via the sick or dead bird route, and it is only when they question him further and he explains he has not been in contact with sick or dead birds, that they start to consider the frightening prospect of human to human infection.

They trace the virus to another man in the village, which is then sealed off and containment procedures are launched, including the slaughter of chickens and ducks and isolating any other humans who may be infected, as they also come forward with similar symptoms.

The simulation ends on Sunday, before which officials will even try to stop supposedly infected air passengers from boarding planes at the international airport, said a Reuters report.

A villager who had to "report a dead bird" told AFP news agency that he found the simulation very useful and he learned more about what to do in such a situation than he did by just watching the television.

For example, he learned how to handle a dead bird that dies suddenly, he told the news agency.

For some people, the sudden and unexpected appearance in their otherwise peaceful village of over a hundred health officials, observers and news reporters, many of them from other countries, was so unnerving that they fled, said the AFP report.

Click here for more information on bird flu (WHO).

Sources: Reuters, AFP.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today