Indonesia criticised over change in bird flu reporting policy

A decision by authorities in Indonesia to restrict the reporting of bird flu cases in humans to every six months, has been condemned as irresponsible.

Last week Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari announced a change in policy which means in future that bird flu cases will only be reported every six months rather than as they occur.

The Minister has also refused to say how many Indonesians have now died of bird flu saying it is no longer necessary to announce the toll on a case-by-case basis.

Health Minister Supari has been harshly criticised in the past over her handling of health issues and has had previous clashes with both the international community and United States.

Supari did not say whether the new reporting policy also included the World Health Organization (WHO) and that issue remains unclear as WHO officials are still awaiting confirmation of the new policy.

Experts say delays in reporting outbreaks could lead to delays in containing outbreaks and will be a drawback because reporting on a six month basis will mean little time to spot any mutation and the potential development of a pandemic.

To date Indonesia with 108 confirmed human fatalities of the 241 people killed in a dozen countries from bird flu, has the highest death toll of any nation.

Supari has drawn criticism before from the international community over her stance on sharing bird flu samples and for demanding payment for them.

While officials in Indonesia are demanding equal access to any vaccines that are made against bird flu, the U.S. and Indonesia remain embroiled in a dispute over the future of a U.S. naval laboratory in Jakarta, regarding virus transfers and the number of U.S. staff allowed to have diplomatic status.

International health experts are united in their call for access to samples of the constantly mutating H5N1 virus, because of concern that the virus will eventually change into a form easily transmissible among humans.

This could be the trigger for a pandemic to rapidly sweep across the world, killing millions of people.

According to the media a 15-year-old girl had become Indonesia's 109th bird flu victim - but this has not been commented on by the health authorities.

Earlier in the year Supari closed a 24-hour information centre which provided confirmation of new human cases of avian influenza and also stopped the ministry's practice of emailing bird flu alerts to journalists.

Almost all cases so far been the result of close contact with infected birds and Indonesia's vast archipelago, with millions of backyard poultry, combined with a large poor and often ill-informed population, is seen as an epicentre for the deadly bird flu virus.

The current attitude of the authorities in Indonesia towards the H5N1 bird flu virus will only serve to make disease and health experts even more concerned.