Bali has H5N1 bird flu, official (they could lie no more)

Bali has H5N1 bird flu, official (they could lie no more)
By Galina Frango
Aug 13, 2007, 09:25

Siti Fadilah Supari, Indonesian Health Minister, Liar

For months we have been receiving reports of mystery illnesses in Bali where the patients were never diagnosed and simply disappeared. For a long time Indonesian health authorities have covered up serious disease cases, such as when they lied and lied and lied that Indonesia had no H5N1, until one official whistleblower left them no choice. In the same nasty, corrupt manner, the Balinese health authority have refused to talk about these missing patients for months, but now a case of H5N1 has been reported which they could not deny, but tried to until it was too late; after the leak was made to the western press. On top of this the Aussie media have confirmed that the Australian Department of Health and Ageing found many chickens infected with H5N1 in Bali last year; so much for the Indonesia authorities’ lies that it did not exist in Bali. The Aussies say that no human cases were found but they wouldn’t, would they? Those poor soles got carted off only to “disappear”.

So now it is official; Bali has H5N1 bird flu, people have died and are dying from it there, and the disease is spreading. Several other cases have now also been reported. For heavens sake, do not put your own life on the line, the problem is more serious than the authorities will ever say; stay away from Bali!

Ni Luh Putu Sri Windani and her five-year-old daughter have both succumbed to the disease. What is worrying is the admission that not only did poor Putu have to wait 6 days before the health authorities took her into care, but also that the chickens they are believed to have been infected by were put back into the food chain (fed to other animals such as pigs, maybe even people) in true Indonesian fashion. It is a fact that feeding infected chicken meat to pigs is exactly the kind of help the virus needs to jump from one species to another in order to become a true human-to-human virus. What is worse, even when Putu was hospitalized, it took the medical staff numerous days to transfer her to an isolation ward in Denpasar. What happened to all the promises and preparedness the Indonesian health ministry said was in place? Oh yes, just more lies from a nation that knows nothing else.

Ironically and true to fashion, the Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari, after stopping urgently needed H5N1 flu samples to the WHO on the basis Indonesia had intellectual rights to the virus and wanted to make some money from it (yes, it is true, see: Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari), then agreeing to resuming the samples again in order that a vaccine might be found, has changed her mind, reneged on her and Indonesia’s word again. The news is out that Siti Fadilah Supari has finally admitted she did not allow H5N1 samples to the WHO to resume and will not unless Indonesia is guaranteed a cheap vaccine in return.

What she is actually demanding is impossible, but you know how hard it is to get the demented to admit they have a problem! You see, H5N1 flu samples sent to the WHO are distributed to laboratories around the world struggling to find a vaccine for the killer virus before it becomes a pandemic. Someone has to pay for this; the labs are very expensive to run and the scientists are paid well or they go somewhere else, period. Also, vaccine research it one of the least profitable areas of medical research there is; pharmaceutical companies basically doing it for social responsibility. OK, they make some money from vaccines, but not a lot and that is the problem, Siti Fadilah Supari thinks this is all a gold pot that Indonesia should not have to contribute to; so she tries to blackmail the world into giving Indonesia the vaccine before anyone else and at below cost!

There is no telling the Indonesian health minister she agreed to resume samples. There is no telling her that what she asked can not be done. There is no telling her the quicker a vaccine can be found, the quicker the cost of producing that vaccine will come down. Siti Fadilah Supari basically is saying “If we can’t get the vaccine first and on our terms, we will make the world suffer!” It really is as plain and simple as that. And let us not forget, the Indonesian health ministry is not to be trusted as it lied about H5N1 in Indonesia, it lied about H5N1 in Bali, and its’ real motivation is to make money from other people’s suffering. You see, the Indonesians have struck a deal with an American pharmaceutical company that they will get a large share of the profits of any vaccine it produces, and they have allowed H5N1 samples to them of course.

Remember, remember these nasty Indonesian death merchants; theirs lies and breach of agreement. Do not visit Indonesia, do not invest in Indonesia, do not buy anything Indonesian until the greed, corruption and human rights abuse stops.