Indonesia Heats Up
# 252
Trying to track human bird flu cases from foreign newspaper accounts isn’t easy, given the varied languages in use. Flu watchers often use translation tools to convert articles published in Bahasa (a modified form of Malay), the official language of Indonesia, into English in order to sort out what is going on.
The results are often confusing, and sometimes even amusing. But they tell us something we don’t get from our own media, that there continue to be suspected cases of the H5N1 virus infection in humans in that country.
To give you an idea how difficult it can be to interpret these translated articles, I’ll show you the first paragraph of an article posted today.
Cause Bird Flu Labled 11 Subdistricts
17/12/2006 11:30 WIB
The poultry died sprawled * Casualties improved [increased] * The team still was being limited took the sample
http://tinyurl.com/yh3heg
LHOKSEUMAWE - In time not all that 10 days, the assumption of the case of bird flu in Aceh North has spread in 11 subdistricts that terindikasi from even more of them the poultry that died was followed by the patient's increase that must be treated in the hospital.
Basically, from this convoluted translation, we learn that over the past 10 days suspected bird flu has spread thru 11 sub districts in Indonesia. That poultry have died, and a number of patients are being treated in local hospitals.
Interpreting these translations is mind-numbing work, and a handful of stalwart flubies on a number of flu forums spend hours each day trying to make sense of these reports. Frankly, my eyes glaze over when I try to read the translations, and I rely on the summaries posted by these invaluable contributors to the flu community.
So, a tip of the hat goes to all those hardworking souls on the Wiki, Flutrackers, CE, Planforpandemic, PFI, and the other flu forums that do this painstaking work.
What you aren’t hearing on the cable news stations, or reading in English newspapers is that right now, there are apparently 15 to 18 suspected human cases of avian flu being treated in Indonesia. The exact number is difficult to determine, as there are conflicting newspaper accounts.
What we don’t know is if these are actually H5N1 infections.
The tests normally used to determine a bird flu infection have been proven unreliable, particularly once antivirals such as Tamiflu have been administered.
Some of these cases may well turn out to be something else: malaria, dengue, or simply pneumonia. But when we hear reports of poultry deaths, and human cases with bird flu symptoms in close proximity, we do become very suspicious.
It is too soon to declare these cases as anything but `suspicious’.
But thanks to the hard work of some very dedicated flubies, we know about them, can analyze trends, and can hopefully get some early warning of a major outbreak.
