Jakarta sacks leading veterinary official for failing to stem bird flu
The international community has criticized Indonesia's inability to manage the crisis sparked by the bird flu epidemic, now endemic. The virus has 32 new mutations. The death toll rose to 41 today.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Indonesian government has fired its leading veterinary official for failing to crack down on bird flu that has struck across the country. Sjamsul Bahri was appointed director of animal health at the agriculture ministry last September. Since then, the H5N1 virus has infected poultry across the country and is now endemic. It has killed 41 people. Just today, in fact, tests carried out by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the United States confirmed that bird flu was the cause of the death of a three-year-old girl last month.
A department spokesman confirmed that Dr Bahri had been replaced but declined to comment on rumours that it was because of his poor handling of the crisis.
Indonesia is logging new cases of infection of the H5N1 virus faster than any other country affected by bird flu. The international community has criticized Jakarta's decision not to cull fowl and to destroy farms in infected areas, which is today held to be the best way to stop the virus from spreading. The government response is that "it has no money" to compensate farmers for the damage caused.
According to Nature, a science journal, 32 mutations have been found in samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus that killed seven family members in Indonesia last month. The researchers said the new mutations resulted from the free circulation of the virus across the country and it had become stronger in the meantime.
"The virus has accumulated because bird flu is spreading freely across Indonesia," said the confidential research obtained by Nature.
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08/07/2005
