Indonesia: Avian flu is a national disaster

Indonesian Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said on Monday that the country will declare a bird flu as a national disaster to help the government access special funds to combat the disease that killed 63 people.

Suzetta said avian flu has become a pandemic, although Indonesia once had an optimistic psychology in 2006 saying it managed to contain the disease successfully.

Meanwhile in Africa, Nigeria said it had found the H5N1 virus in a woman who died after flu symptoms. This is the first case of bird flu in the sub-Saharan region.

* CSL Pharmaceutical Company (Australia) has announced that it has successfully tested an avian influenza vaccine in adults between the ages of 18-65. Similar experiments on children and the elderly are expected to be completed this year. CSL said that the new vaccine will first be registered for circulation in the Southern Hemisphere, then supplied and stocked in Asia.

Residents of Jakarta capital destroyed sick poultry (Photo: Reuters).

SN