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Forum: H 5 N 1 Suspect Cluster in Makassar South Sulawesi Grows

09 October 2006

Angela – at 17:43
     Hi. I’m new to the site, but I’ve found it to be very infomative. It’s good to know that I’m not the only person taking this potential health crisis very seriously. 
     I wanted to know if anyone has heard/read of any new developments regarding the Makassar cluster of 10/03/06. Several days ago, I came across an article from The Jakarta Post (10/05/06) that detailed seven new possible H5N1 cases that were overwhelming the local hospital. I printed it for my files since I could not email it to myself and saved the link. One hour or so later when I returned to check the link for updates, I found that it no longer existed.  THE STORY WAS GONE; THE LINK WAS BROKEN; AND THE MEDIA HAS NOT TOUCHED THIS TOPIC SINCE 10/05/06. 
     I tried every way till Sunday to find the story, from Google on down, and each time I encountered a broken or non-existent link. I know I’m not crazy and have proof of the article because I had the good sense to print it. So what’s really going on? Who silenced this story and why? Are we deeper into a pandemic than any of us realize, and if so, when are the powers that be going to announce it? I am very concerned because the cluster described in the article pointed to a human-to-human transfer between 6–7 children. I’m not quite sure what to make of all this. And I’m feeling very uneasy about the lack of information that has been available on all the major news feeds since Thursday of last week.
Northstar – at 17:53

Angela, you’ve sure got my interest. The same thing happened to me with the Dr. Webster interview on ABC! Sent the link to a number of people and if they didn’t read it within hours, pffft, down the memory hole it went. My dh couldn’t even retrieve it when he came home from work. (It _is_ available now.)

But anyway, if the article no longer exists, I’m sure there is no issue with copyright infringement if you should desire to post it here. (s) I know it would be a pain to retype the whole thing unless it’s short… but perhaps pertinent sections?

DennisCat 17:58

is this the one : “Seven people showing symptoms of bird flu have been admitted to a hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The patients, most less than 10 years old, were being treated in the Pakis isolation room at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital on Thursday for high fever and vomiting. ..”

http://tinyurl.com/g9d3m

this is a cached page from google

I have had problems getting old news from Jakarta post

anon_22 – at 18:00

Angela, does that mean you have a hardcopy of a page as it looked on the website? Or was it just selected text? If it’s the first, it would be useful. Like you can scan it and email it to one of us or something. Just saying…

moeb – at 18:06

a week before the Indonesian cluster of eight, I had a similar experience with a story in the Jakarta Post, I never did find out what happened to it

Pixie – at 18:19

You are right, Angela. I posted that Jakarta Post story on the Indonesia XIII thread (Pixie - at 01:58). The article is still posted there in most of its entirety, but you are correct that the link no longer takes us to that story but instead to another about feeding orphans during Ramadan.

We have followed the cases and most of the children seem to have been released: one was determined to have dengue, one had a family link to TB, one was thought to be simply malnourished. Medication seems to have been provided to the suspect cases and many of them were sent home from what I can gather from the follow-up reports.

anonymous – at 18:19

It’s still there. It’s an on-line news journal, so you have to look in Archives, just like any other. It’s in the 10/6 edition, not 10/5.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061006.A06

Possible bird flu cases in Makassar National News - October 06, 2006, Andi Hajramurni and Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Semarang

Seven people showing symptoms of bird flu have been admitted to a hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The patients, most less than 10 years old, were being treated in the Pakis isolation room at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital on Thursday for high fever and vomiting.

“Our preliminary clinical diagnosis was that they were infected with the bird flu virus, so we moved them to the isolation room,” said M. Halik, who is responsible for bird flu treatment at the hospital.

Halik said the seven patients’ blood had tested negative for the H5N1 bird flu virus. To be certain of the diagnosis, however, he said doctors needed the results of tests on the patients’ nasal mucus from a laboratory in Jakarta. “We’ve sent the specimens to Jakarta and are waiting for the test results,” he said.

Family members said chickens near the patients’ homes had been falling ill and dying rapidly without any clear reason, Halik added. The Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital is somewhat overwhelmed by the increasing number of suspected bird flu patients it is treating. Two isolation rooms designed to hold two patients each have had to accommodate twice the number. According to the Ministry of Health, a total of 69 people have contracted bird flu in Indonesia. Of those, 52 have died.

Meanwhile, in Central Java, many chickens have fallen ill and died in recent days in a possible outbreak of the disease. The H5N1 virus is believed to be killing poultry in 17 kampongs in the Central Java regencies of Semarang, Temanggung, Purbalingga, Pekalongan and Pemalang, according to Kurmaningsih, the head of the Central Java Livestock Husbandry Office. Rapid tests on dead chickens in Lebdosari kampong, Gisikdrono, in Semarang, indicated they had the virus. Local authorities later culled 35 other chickens in the kampong to prevent the disease from spreading.

Kurmaningsih said her office had asked for 10 million more doses of H5N1 vaccine from the central government. “We currently have 12 million doses of the vaccine, but we want more in order to be ready for a much bigger outbreak,” she said in Semarang on Thursday.

Kurmaningsih explained that despite the massive poultry vaccination drive launched earlier this year through a program called the National Movement against Avian Influenza, the infections which started hitting the province in 2003 have continued to spread. Kurmaningsih said under the program, her office distributed 50 million doses of vaccine to poultry owners in the province in 2004, 14 million doses in 2005 and another 22 million doses this year. “We culled chickens in Boyolali in 2004. But now we have no plans to do so because the social impacts (of culling) are so widespread. Besides that we still don’t know whether there will be compensation for the culled chickens,” she explained.

In a related development, the Ministry of Health plans to build modern laboratories in North Sumatra to diagnose bird flu infections, Aswin Soefi Lubi, dean of the School of Medicine at the Islamic University of North Sumatra, said Thursday. Aswin said one of the laboratories will be built at his medical school. They will be used to test blood from suspected bird flu victims without having to send the samples to Jakarta.

Apriadi Gunawan contributed to this article from Medan, North Sumatra.

Angela – at 20:01

Thank you to everyone for helping to track down that article. It appears that the media makes great use of informational black holes :-) I am still uneasy, however, that no real information seems to be available about the remaining suspect cases. It doesn’t inspire much confidence on the actual status of the virus’ proliferation. Also, has anyone learned about the status of H5N1 case #69, the young woman (21) who caught it from her 11 year-old brother? My heart grieves for her family, who already lost one child, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Is she better? Is she worse? And why have there been no articles about her since the initial announcement?

15 October 2006

Blue – at 08:59

… --- …

20 October 2006

Blue – at 22:38
 Sorry, what was the verdict on this?
Influentia2 – at 22:45

Angela 20:01 Eni sister to Abram that died, lived and was recently released from the hospital. You may want to go to the Indonesian Outbreak Thread and read. There is also a summary and a chart you can download that may help you get caught up.

Blue – at 23:00
 OK I was struggling with that particular thread and so I just recycled this one……HEEHEE!
Newsie – at 23:48

HEEHEE?

Blue, why did you bring this thread back?

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