Indonesian military to help fight bird flu

JAKARTA, March 3 (Reuters) The Indonesian military will help in the fight against bird flu as part of the country's efforts to stamp out the disease that has killed 63 people, the bird flu national committee said.

The military will set up bird flu treatment centres at two army hospitals to ensure wider access to medical care people infected with the virus, the committee said in a statement yesterday.

In addition, the military will also support national and regional bird flu control efforts in remote areas in the sprawling archipelago, which has the world's highest human death toll from the virus.

''The military will also work closely in developing Indonesia's contingency plan for a possible pandemic by holding regular simulation and field exercises,'' Bayu Krisnamurthi, the head of the committee, said.

''We will coordinate all military services related to bird flu control programmes.'' Indonesia has intensified efforts to control the disease by banning backyard fowl in Jakarta and surrounding provinces, and more culling of infected birds.

Bird flu is endemic in fowl in many of the 33 provinces in Indonesia and there was a sudden increase in the number of human deaths from the virus early this year after a brief lull.

Indonesia has avoided mass culling, but has opted for selective culling instead because of the expense involved and logistical difficulties of such an exercise.

Although H5N1 bird flu remains essentially a bird disease, the big concern is that it could mutate into a disease that easily passes from human-to-human triggering a global pandemic.

Separately, Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating welfare minister, said the government will set up 150 mobile units which can be sent to areas with bird flu outbreaks.

''These mobile units can move faster to do, for example, spraying disinfectant in outbreak areas,'' Bakrie said. ''There has been no reports of bird flu human case in Jakarta for a month since the ban on keeping poultry in housing.'' Bakrie urged other regions to follow Jakarta's footsteps in banning poultry in housing areas.

REUTERS PDM RK0936