Posted 22 March 2006 @ 02:20
Updated 23 March 2006 @ 02:26
PURWAKARTA, 22 March 2006 - Armed with vaccines and green rubber boots, veterinarian Sri Wuryasturati is ready to hit the road for Indonesia's anti-bird flu campaign. Except she doesn't have the most essential item to get going: a motorcycle. Dressed in a crisp brown civil servant's uniform and scarf, the 42-year-old eventually takes off hours later to join hundreds of veterinarians at the forefront of efforts to contain bird flu in Indonesia, which has the world's second highest number of human deaths from the disease.
"We have got the vaccines ready," she said, pointing to a refrigerator full of vaccines for poultry. "But sometimes some of us can't go out because there are no vehicles." Without motorcycles, it is impossible for vaccinators to reach villages in the morning before locals release their backyard chickens into the fields. And there are lots of villages in Indonesia, a country of 220 million people spread across thousands of islands.
Although Indonesia has launched high-profile, door-to-door checks of poultry and birds in some provinces, the country remains vulnerable because of poor planning and surveillance. Jakarta has set up a national team to combat bird flu, but its members and volunteers only reach areas in the capital while those in provinces rely on their own networks of vaccinators.
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