Bird Flu Surveillance Officers Needed

The Tangerang administration said it lacks sufficient personel to thoroughly monitor the regency an effort to curb the spread of bird flu. “Our team is not large  enough to monitor the 12 districts in the regency that are the most susceptible to bird flu,” Asmiati, the coordinator of the regency’s Bird Flu  Anticipation Team, said Wednesday (Feb. 13/2008).
She said the districts regarded as being more prone to bird flu outbreaks were serpong, North Serpong, Pakuhaji, Sindang Jaya, Sepatan, East Sepatan, Sukamulya, Cisauk, Cisoka, Pamulang, Pondok Aren and Pasar Kemis. She said the regency’s agriculture and animal husbandry agency had only deployed eight officers to cull poultry thought to be infected with the virus in the regency, which is made up of 36 districts.

“It would be impossible for these officers to reach every districtsin the regency, so we need additional officers from the central government,” she said. Ideally every district should have at least one officer working in the field. The agency recently formed a working group to disseminate information about bird flu within the community.
“But many residents still believe raising chickens without regularly cleaning their cages is acceptable,” Asmiati said, adding that eight chickens owned by a Pamulang resident died suddently recently. Public concern escalated again over the spread of bird flu in Tangerang following the deaths of two Tangerang residents last month. One of the victims died at Suliati Saroso Hospital in Nort Jakarta, while the other died at Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta.
Since 2005, 16 Tangerang residents have been infected with bird flu, resulting in 14 deaths.     
Source; The Jakarta Post