Preliminary tests clear Indonesians of bird flu

JAKARTA, Aug 3 (Reuters) Preliminary tests have cleared six Indonesians from North Sumatra province of suspected bird flu, the health minister said today.

''Investigations by the ministry of health lab and NAMRU-2, on August 2 and 3 on all specimens collected from the suspected cases in Kabanjahe district came up negative,'' Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told a news conference, referring to the US Naval Medical Research Unit based in Jakarta.

She said the investigation showed the patients to be suffering from the common flu that normally affects humans.

The suspected bird flu cases were in a village about 5 km from one where as many as seven members of an extended family died from bird flu in May, triggering fears the H5N1 bird flu virus had mutated into a form that could spread easily between people.

The minister said the government was still investigating and would carry out further tests, with final results expected within five to seven days.

She did not mention a seventh possible case some officials had referred to previously.

The National Commission on Avian Flu Control and Preparedness has also set up a post in Kabanjahe district to provide services for the community there, including compensating farmers whose poultry were culled, the minister said.

For future diagnosis of bird flu, Supari said Indonesia would not send human samples to the World Health Organisation-authorised laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, but would still send samples to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

''WHO requires human samples to be sent to one of WHO's six collaborative centres. So, we only need to send them to CDC Atlanta as it has worked with the U.S. NAMRU-2 lab here,'' she said.

Indonesia currently sends samples to WHO authorised labs both in Hong Kong and CDC Atlanta for confirmation as local tests are not considered definitive.

''We have three independent labs here which are capable of detecting bird flu virus in humans,'' she said, referring to the Eijkman Biomolecular Institute, the health ministry's National Institute of Health Research and Development Laboratory (Badan Litbangkes) and the U.S. NAMRU-2. All are based in Jakarta.

Indonesia has recorded 42 confirmed deaths from bird flu, equalling Vietnam, where no one is known to have died of the disease this year.

The country has been criticised for not doing enough to stamp out H5N1, which still remains essentially an animal disease but experts fear could spark a pandemic if it mutates into a form that can pass easily among people.

The government has so far shied away from mass culling of poultry, citing lack of funds and impracticality in a country with millions of backyard fowl.

REUTERS DKB BD1711