UN-backed bird flu meeting in Indonesia aims to avert outbreaks among humans

Aiming to avert new outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus, experts gathered in Indonesia today – a main locus of the disease – at a United Nations-backed conference which seeks to develop strategies for preventing its spread to humans.

Experts from the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and numerous countries are participating in the consultation, convened at the request of Indonesia, which has reported 33 human cases of the disease, with 27 deaths this year alone.

“Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has already demonstrated a great degree of transparency and collaboration since the first case appeared last year,” said Dr. Paul Gully, a senior advisor for communicable diseases at WHO. “With this consultation, Indonesia is taking another step to assess how best to protect the health of its people. The results will certainly be of great importance to all worldwide, who are eyeing the risk of the next pandemic.”

The conference aims to provide recommendations to control the virus in both humans and animals, review lessons learned for rapid response and containment, and provide a risk assessment of avian influenza in Indonesia in both humans and animals. Results from the consultation will be provided on Friday.

The H5N1 virus is considered firmly entrenched in poultry throughout much of Indonesia, and this widespread presence of the virus has resulted in a significant number of human cases. Indonesia, which has recorded 49 cases, 37 of them fatal, is second only to Vietnam with 93 cases, 42 of them fatal.

The largest cluster of human H5N1 cases was identified last month, in a family in Kubu Sembelang village, North Sumatra, according to WHO. Seven of the eight family members died. Unless this situation is urgently addressed, sporadic human cases are likely and human-to-human transmission – which experts fear could spark a deadly pandemic – is possible.