Indonesia 'facing Bird Flu Epidemic'

The Indonesian health minister today warned that the country could be on the brink of a bird flu epidemic after another two children suspected to have contracted the virus died.

The children - girls aged five and two - had shown symptoms of the disease, but health officials said they were still waiting for test results to confirm the causes of death.

If bird flu is confirmed as the reason, the girls will be the fifth and sixth Indonesians to die of the virus, all of them in unexplained circumstances. The H5N1 virus has killed at least 60 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia since November 2003.

A further five people suspected of having bird flu have been admitted to Jakarta's infectious diseases hospital. Four children were taken to the hospital on Monday, while Jakarta zoo was closed for three weeks after 19 birds tested positive.

"It's not an epidemic yet, but sporadic cases in parts of Jakarta ... if [cases are] increasing, it is possible that an epidemic may occur," the health minister, Siti Fadilla Supari, told Reuters.

In an attempt to avoid public panic, the government today announced a mass cull of chickens in infected areas. Officials allegedly fired Indonesia's chief of animal health control over the outbreak.

The majority of human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, but the World Health Organisation has warned that if the virus mutated into a form that could be passed between humans, it could trigger a global pandemic, causing millions of deaths.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian government declared a national "extraordinary event" because of the disease, assigning 44 state-owned hospitals to the treatment of bird flu patients and making sure that all received free medication.

The extra measures also mean people with symptoms of the disease - which include high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties - could be forcibly admitted to hospital.

The WHO today announced that it was preparing to start distributing large quantities of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, proven to treat the H5N1 virus in humans, "if and when a pandemic starts".

Dr Shigeru Omi, the director of the organisation's Western Pacific region, said the agency was ready to make its stockpile of the drug available to avert a global crisis. It currently has store of around 80,000 Tamiflu treatment courses.