Commentary
Fatal
H5N1
Case Confirmed in Semarang Indonesia
Recombinomics Commentary
11:47
November 12, 2008
Agus Suryanto, who headed the team of doctors treating the patient, said the girl was from the city of Semarang, 250 miles east of Jakarta. She died late last week after 10 days of hospitalization.
Local health agency chief Tatik Suryanti said test results from two laboratories in the capital came back positive Wednesday.
The above comments describe a confirmed H5N1 fatality in Semerang, Indonesia. The case is being reported locally and by AP, but has yet to be acknowledged by the government of Indonesia or WHO. International Health Regulations require Indonesia to notify WHO 24-48 hours after lab confirmation, and WHO generally issues a situation update within 24-48 hours after receiving notification from the affected country.
Several months ago Indonesia stated that they would not issue timely reports of confirmed human cases. However, WHO maintained that a lack of public announcements by Indonesia did not preclude Indonesia from notifying WHO, in accordance with regulation.
However, there has been no timely situation updates on confirmed cases since the Indonesian announcement, indicating that Indonesia was out of compliance, or WHO was withholding announcements on confirmed human cases. The change of policy followed the denial of several clusters which signaled human to human transmission.
This behavior by Indonesia and WHO continues to be hazardous to the world’s health. Indonesia has the highest number of confirmed cases, the highest case fatality rate and has withheld sequence data from human and bird H5N1 isolates.
The lack of response by the international community remains a cause for concern.
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