Indonesia Neglected Bird Flu Until Too Late, Experts Say

A worker cleans chickens at a small slaughterhouse in Jakarta. Experts say Indonesia covered up the spread of bird flu in poultry until it had begun to sicken humans. (By Achmad Ibrahim -- Associated Press)

Last fall, with human cases mounting in Vietnam and Thailand, Nidom was growing increasingly nervous about the prospect of the epidemic spreading to Indonesians. He arranged an October conference at his university to examine bird flu and invited four of the world's premier influenza researchers, from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Shortly before its scheduled start, a senior agriculture official contacted Yoes Prijatna Dachlan, the head of Nidom's institute, and demanded that foreign participants and all media be banned, Dachlan said. Dachlan, chairman of the university's Tropical Disease Center, said he rejected the conditions and canceled the gathering. Nidom said officials threatened to have police break it up if it proceeded.

Apriyantono said in the interview that he was unfamiliar with the incident but that Indonesia was open to foreign researchers.

Through this summer, avian flu continued to spread, often unreported, and containment efforts remained unfunded. The disease reached two-thirds of the country's provinces. Then in July, a father and two daughters in an affluent Jakarta suburb died of respiratory disease. The father tested positive as the country's first bird flu victim. Health investigators concluded that his daughters likely died of the same cause.

Responding to public anxiety, Apriyantono went on television to oversee the culling of several dozen pigs and ducks on a farm 10 miles away. But when the cameras left, the campaign stalled. Officials backed away from a vow to kill about 200 swine in the area. Thousands of chickens, identified by health experts as the leading suspects in the outbreak, escaped slaughter.

As suspected human cases mounted last month, government officials said they would take extraordinary measures. Apriyantono said he was changing course and would order a mass slaughter of poultry in any area declared highly infected.

But one month later, Apriyantono acknowledged that he has yet to define such an area. As a result, he has now directed that culling be limited to the specific property where an infection is detected and that neighboring birds be spared.

Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.