INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 21 AVIAN INFLUENZA UPDATE

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SUBJECT:INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 21 AVIAN INFLUENZA UPDATE

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officials have vaccinated more than 21,000 birds with a
total target of 160,000. Since the recent outbreak, city
officials are focusing more attention on the vaccination
program. Suhartoyo said his office needs additional
equipment to effectively carry out bird vaccinations.

MEETING WITH EAST JAVA PROVINCIAL OFFICIALS
--------------

6. (U) ConGen Surabaya discussed the recent outbreak of AI
in Surabaya and the provincial poultry vaccination program
with Suhadji, Deputy head of the East Java Provincial
Livestock and Animal Husbandry Department and Bambang
Hermawan, Head of the Animal Health Division of the
Department on March 16. Suhadji stated that his office
assisted the City of Surabaya Livestock office in dealing
with its AI outbreak last month, and confirmed that city
officials followed the proper procedures as set out by the
MOA. Suhadji and Hermawan said there are no known human AI
cases in East Java at this time, as recently stated by the
Governor. Suhadji added that provincial officials have
detected the AI virus in bird populations in 2006 in four
previously "clean" regencies (Situbondo, Bondowoso,
Lumajang, and Surabaya). He added that 29 of the total 38
East Java regencies and cities are now or have been infected
with AI.

7. (U) East Java province is administering a large
vaccination program covering small holders of poultry,
according to Hermawan. Provincial officials have vaccinated
4 million birds in the province so far, with a goal of 23
million birds in all of the infected regencies. They are
not offering vaccinations to large commercial poultry
operators because provincial officials assume they can
afford vaccinations for their flocks. Hermawan complained
that the province has 1,000 personnel trained to administer
the vaccines but they lack sufficient medicine and equipment
to effectively carry out the program. Hermawan also noted
that his office has been preemptively spraying disinfectant
in provincial areas populated with migratory birds,
including Surabaya, Pasuruan, Sidoarjo and Gresik in an
effort to delay the spread of the AI virus to domestic
birds.

AI IN CENTRAL JAVA
--------------

8. (U) On March 20, Suara Merdeka newspaper reported the
death from AI of 1,650 chickens in Grobogan Regency, Central
Java. However, Dr. Rianto, Chief Veterinarian from the
Animal Health Division of Grobogan Regency Livestock and
Fisheries Office told Congen Surabaya officers on March 23
that the article had misstated the facts. Instead, Rianto
said regency officials had destroyed 200 birds either
infected with or dead from the AI virus in early 2006. In
addition, regency officials destroyed 1,450 birds infected
or exposed to AI in two different villages during 2004 and
400,000 dead or infected birds in 2003. Rianto clarified
that the large discrepancy between the numbers of birds
destroyed between 2003 and subsequent years was due to a

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massive reduction of the number of infected birds in the
regency.

9. (U) Rianto said the regency is not culling healthy birds
in the vicinity of outbreaks, only properly disposing of
dead birds or culling birds showing symptoms of AI virus
infection. Grobogan officials do not follow MOA directives
to cull all birds within a 1-kilometer radius around an AI
virus outbreak due to the ineffectiveness of the GOI's
compensation program for farmers. Rianto said there is a
great deal of paperwork involved with making a compensation
claim, and a MOA representative must come from Jakarta to
verify and approve any compensation requests, a process that
is slow and prone to corruption. "Most local farmers only
have a few chickens and do not object to our removing birds
that are already dead or sick without compensation", noted
Dr. Rianto.

Human AI Case Profile
--------------

10. (U) NAMRU-2 has identified a new probable case, a 23-
year old male from the Jakarta suburb of Bekasi. Hong Kong
Laboratories and U.S. Centers for Disease Control, (CDC),
have confirmed H5N1 in two probable cases, a one-year old
from Jakarta and a 5- year old from Bekasi. The Ministry of
Health (MOH) and NAMRU-2 have petitioned the World Health
Organization (WHO) to include two older probable cases (an 8-
year old female and a 45-year old male) as positive for
H5N1. Thus, these two victims are included in NAMRU-2's
total, but are not listed as confirmed by the WHO.

11. (SBU) NAMRU-2 data indicates the following AI-related
case profile as of April 4:

-- Number of laboratory confirmed (positive PCR and/or
serology) human AI cases: 33, of which 25 have been fatal
(fatality rate of 76 percent).

-- Number of probable AI cases: 4, with 2 deaths (fatality
rate of 50 percent).

-- Number of cases awaiting verification by the US CDC: 4.

-- Number of possible AI cases under investigation:
approximately 32.

-- Number of excluded AI cases: 248.

PASCOE