Indonesias Bird Flu Campain

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Indonesia’s planned door-to-door bird-flu surveillance will begin in Jakarta tomorrow, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono said, bolstering the country’s efforts to curb the disease that has killed at least nine Indonesians.

Starting Dec. 22, representatives from local communities, the military and student volunteers will traverse the nation’s capital of about 9 million people to root out diseased fowl and pet birds in homes and backyards, Apriantono said in a telephone interview late yesterday.

“Hundreds of people will be involved and we will do it for as long as it takes,” Apriantono said. He declined to say how much the operation will cost or how the government plans to fund the program. At least eight of 14 confirmed cases in Indonesia involved people living in Jakarta.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is under pressure to control outbreaks of the H5N1 avian flu strain in birds that increase the risk of the disease infecting humans and possibly mutating into a form that’s easily spread among people.

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