Indonesia says long battle ahead against bird flu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has seen a drop in the number of bird flu infections in humans this year, although the fatality rate has risen and the country faces a long battle against the virus, a government official said on Tuesday.

Indonesia has had 115 confirmed human cases of bird flu and 92 human deaths, the highest number globally, since the first cases of the deadly H5N1 virus emerged in chickens in the Southeast Asian country four years ago and in humans in 2005.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, head of the national bird flu commission, said there was now greater public awareness of the disease.

"Unfortunately, on a less than happy note, I have to say that Indonesia's battle against bird flu is not over, and the battle will continue for a long time," he told a news conference.

More needed to be done to contain sporadic outbreaks in poultry and on surveillance to spot sick chickens, Krisnamurthi said.

Many flocks of poultry did not show signs of the disease, even though they were carriers of the virus, while the rapid movement of fowl and humans sometimes made it difficult to trace the source of virus after human infection, he added.

"There were four cases in the past four months where we found a positive human case, but were not able to trace it to sick chickens," Krisnamurthi said.

"We need to intensify our search... unfortunately bird flu is endemic in this country, so the virus is everywhere."

Although bird flu remains mostly an animal disease, experts fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from person to person and sweep millions.