Ignorance Hampers Indonesia's Bird Flu Fight

According to this article, public ignorance, official ineptitude and lack of funds are to blame for the increasing amount of human deaths from avian influenza in Indonesia. With a total of 46 avian flu deaths, the country has the highest number in the world.

Given this high number of deaths, Indonesia has launched an awareness campaign about the virus, but it is difficult to get people to cooperate due to the fact that some people delay treatment because they do not want to be stigmatised, while others don’t believe that the disease is really serious.

According to Marthen Malelo, a virologist at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, the government’s slow response to the bird flu outbreak has resulted in the current “out of control” situation, where there are not enough vaccinations to carry out a massive vaccination drive.

The government has opted for selective culling, but has met with fierce opposition from farmers. Farmers oppose culling because of the low compensation that they receive for their birds. Some farmers accuse the government of spreading rumors about avian influenza to receive foreign money. The government says that it has not received “a single cent” from the $1.9 billion pledged by international donors at a Beijing conference in early 2006.

Experts say that the government should set aside more funds to compensate farmers whose poultry is culled. According to Louise F. Scura, World Development Sector Coordinator at the World Bank, "[a]s long as the bird flu virus is circulating in poultry, we will continue to have sporadic human cases. And to detect outbreaks in poultry, we need to have resources to vaccinate and cull…And we can't expect farmers to voluntarily have their chickens culled without compensation."