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Indonesia holds largest-ever ‘avian flu’ exercise

Officials burn chickens suspected of being infected with bird flu during a bird flu exercise in Jembrana, Indonesia, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Hundreds of Indonesian villagers and health workers took part in a massive drill yesterday to prepare for a potentially devastating outbreak of human-to-human bird flu.

The largest bird flu drill ever held in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus, involved the simulated outbreak of a pandemic which experts say could rapidly spread across the globe killing millions of people.

“This is the biggest drill in Indonesia. The objective is to test the preparedness of bird flu officials to manage an outbreak in case it happens,” health ministry disease control chief I Nyoman Kandun told reporters. The three-day drill began at Tukaddaya village outside Jembrana, 80km west of Denpasar in Bali, with a man presenting himself to a clinic with the symptoms of deadly avian influenza.

Health workers initially think he has been in contact with infected chickens — until now the main way the virus has been caught by humans — but the man explains that he has not been handling birds at all.

The virus is traced to a man in the village and health workers have to confront their worst fear — the first outbreak of bird flu transmitted from human to human.

The village is sealed off, birds and ducks are slaughtered and officials scramble to find and isolate other victims.

Some real residents of Tukaddaya fled as the simulation began, not out of concern for bird flu but just at the sight of all the officials, journalists and foreign observers descending on their quiet village.

More than 50 foreigners, including 14 diplomats, were taking part in the exercise, which was covered by more than 50 local and international journalists.
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