Indonesian officials "covered up and then neglected" an epidemic of avian flu in poultry for two years, allowing it to spread among flocks and then to people, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The US newspaper quoted an Indonesian microbiologist as saying authorities argued about whether the virus killing chickens was in fact H5N1, and then tried to deal with it quietly.
As a result the virus spread for two years with little publicity until it began infecting people. H5N1 bird flu has killed four people in Indonesia.
"If the government had acted sooner to stamp it out, there would be no outbreak," the newspaper quoted Indonesian microbiologist Chairul Nidom as saying. "They have wasted so much time."
The newspaper also quoted Indonesia's former national director of animal health, Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, as saying chickens began dying from H5N1 in 2003 but the government covered it up because of lobbying from the poultry industry.
"They said, 'It's better to do it with confidentiality. Do a hidden, silent operation'," Ms Naipospos was quoted as saying. "I said, 'It won't work if you do a silent operation. This is a disease that can't be hidden. It's too risky'."
Ms Naipospos lost her job in September. "I was dismissed because the minister considered I have failed in handling bird flu," she said at the time.
H5N1 bird flu first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, killing or forcing the destruction of millions of birds, infecting 18 people and killing six of them.
It re-emerged in 2003 and has now been found in flocks across Asia and into Europe, as far west as European Russia and Romania.
It spreads quickly, kills chickens and can occasionally infect people, with often fatal results.
At least 61 people in Asia have died of H5N1 infections, out of 118 known cases. Experts believe H5N1 could mutate at any time to become easily transmitted from person to person, causing a pandemic. - (Reuters)