Bird Flu hits Indonesia

The Indonesian Government has conceded that millions of chickens have died in Indonesia after being infected with a deadly bird flu.

Initially the Government had made claims that the deaths of the birds were due to the more common Newcastle disease but now it says more than a third were infected with type-A avian flu.Although the government has conceded the existence of the disease in Java and Bali, they are yet to order a mass cull of their chickens, unlike their other Asiatic couterparts.So far there have been no reports of human infection in Indonesia.The Government says it will be days before it knows whether it was the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu that killed the chickens, but in the meantime it is telling consumers to keep eating chickens and eggs. Something easier said than done with infections on the rise and a number of new human cases across the Asiatic region.Indonesia has stopped short of culling any flocks, the measure recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to protect humans.The H5N1 virus has killed millions of birds across Asia and has recently infecting humans in Thailand and Vietnam.(Source: ABC Health News, Jan 2004)